Slayers & Fairies
by Fraggranark
Summary: I saw no crossovers so I fixed that! Inspecting her loot..acquired from bandits, Lina & Gourry find themselves in a world with very different magic. With Amelia and Zelgadis coming after them, a guild & new enemies! Changed pen-name from Lord of Change.  Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: the characters and all that of both Fairy Tail and Slayers do not belong to me, unless they're OCs of mine (unlikely) or I run into a _lot_ of money tomorrow. Hint hint, nudge nudge.

I saw the frankly _shameful_ lack of any Slayers X Fairy Tail crossovers and I felt deeply wounded. No, I felt offended. No, I felt both wounded and offended, offensively wounded if you will. And as such, I have decided to remedy this by forging the first one on this site, in the hopes that it will foster more.

All you need do is read, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy and review. Follow all these steps _precisely_ and we'll all get to without having irate authors hunting you down and forcing you to write a review...err, not that I would ever do that, of course.

Continue, and enjoy!

Oh, and please review. Reviews make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Some people have the patience of saints. Some are simply good tempered. Others are meek. But our story concerns someone who is none of these, someone who could drive saints to tears through sheer stubbornness, who's temper could be roughly, and accurately, compared unfavourably to a poorly designed explosive. Someone to who shouting and demands were a natural, perfectly normal method of communication, even with friends and people who might be _more _than friends. Especially with a person who might be more than a friend.

Hence, it is perfectly reasonable to come upon the focus of this story in the middle of setting fire to a poor, innocent, entirely blameless band of hapless bloodthirsty bandits.

For the slow among us, the main character is one Lina Inverse, self-proclaimed gorgeous sorceress extraordinaire, widely proclaimed Enemy-of-All-Who-Live and a collection of other rage inducing titles. Despite the less than...complimentary reputation she held, and a number of personality flaws that ranged from gluttony, penny-pinching and sheer pettiness to arrogance and breast-envy (not that she'd ever admit it), Lina Inverse has actually saved the world several times. Although to be fair she did once risk reducing the totality of existence to nothingness for one man, but that worked out well, so no harm done. She has her flaws, but flaws are what makes hero(ine)s great, right?

"Burn! Burn! BUUUURRRN! MWUAHAHAHAHA!"

...um.

Moving swiftly on, now that it has been established that Lina was doing her best to heroically liberate the stolen goods of the innocent from a bunch of villainous, heartless bandits-

"My skin! My skin is boiling off!"

"No! My life's work of carefully carved artist wooden statues!"

"My lungs are on fire, my lungs are on chablagack!"

"My leg!"

"My poor daughter, I'm sorry my flesh was burnt off before I could get the gold to pay for your operation! Goodbye cruel wor-"

_Cough, cough._

..._sigh_

Ok, skipping right ahead to a now largely demolished bandit camp, Lina was striding through the mess confidently. Her eyes roved, searching for anything she might have missed on the first several lootings. Behind her a large sack, bulging gold, jewels and various other valuable wheezed and a male voice asked "Lina, don't you have enough now?"

Lina didn't even look back when she replied, "Stop whining Gourry. Be a man and tough it out." She dismissed his opinion with a lazy wave of the hand not going through an old sack in search of valuables.

"But I'm hungry. And Amelia and Zel are waiting for us." Gourry pointed out, and would have gone on had Lina not yelped and let go of whatever she was pulling out of the sack. Dropping his burden, the swordsman was at Lina's side before you could blink. "What happened, you okay?"

Pulling off her glove, lest it be further stained, Lina stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked at the wound. She didn't answer, preoccupied with sucking on her finger. Which meant she completely missed the fact Gourry's face went a hilarious shade of red and couldn't take his eyes from her finger and mouth.

She mumbled nonsensically, seemingly unaware that a full mouth wasn't conductive to conversation. Which, after years of meals which rarely went without a mouth and throat stuffed to capacity, you'd think she'd know by now. Satisfied with the lack of continued blood flow, Lina removed her finger and dedicated both hands to pulling, carefully, whatever had cut her from the sack. Unnoticed, Gourry's face had gone back to something approaching its usual colour.

Grumbling under her breath, Lina finally managed to free the object. Glinting in a remarkably sinister fashion for an inanimate object, although the drops of blood staining one of its edges added to it, she held a multifaceted gem of many colours. Fist sized, it was fitted into a pure gold coin and each colour was separated by a thin, crack-like line of gold. Seven flat edges led up to a point on both sides.

Both stared at the impressive item, Lina practically drooling at the sight of it. On one level, this was simply due to the sheer value of such an item. On another, it was the aura of magical power that permeated it. There were few things that could capture her attention like a valuable, mysterious piece of jewellery throbbing with arcane might and secrets, and one of those things was standing next to her looking at it too.

"Wow. What is it?" Gourry asked, certain he should be impressed but not entirely sure why.

Lina didn't take her gaze from it, as if trying it divine its powers through sheer willpower. "I'm...not sure." Her voice was cautious, but completely serious. "Its got some strong enchantments on, no wait, _in _it." She bit her lip, unsure what she was seeing. A sorceress of great power and a loot-monkey, Lina was skilled at comprehending magical objects, if only because they sold for more if you knew what they did.

This strange item didn't just glow with a single type of magic, as most did. Imbuing one item with multiple types of magic was tricky, not to mention dangerous, and if she was right this thing had the marking of Black and Holy Magic. That should normally be impossible, not least because there were no users of Holy magic left in the lands once sealed beneath the Mazoku barrier.

"How did bandits get something like this? It must be really old." The redhead muttered to herself. That was the only explanation she thought was likely. The only users of Black Magic in the Outer World were sorcerers travelling from the Inner World and Mazoku, but the only users if Holy Magic were in the Outer World. "Unless it was made recently, but what Dragon would help a user of Black Magic?" she thought aloud, pondering it.

Backing away, Gourry decided this was something best left to Lina. She didn't seem about to hurt herself, and it was obviously something magical if she her absently spoken words were true. Shrugging it off as something he wouldn't understand, the swordsman began walking back to the fallen sack of goods.

Frowning, Lina looked up and saw her partner moving away. Glancing at her find again, she decided to leave until they got back to the inn. Besides, Amelia and Zelgadis should be back by the time they reached the village and both could help with unravelling this mystery. Still, Lina was reluctant to put it away, staring into the many facets as she walked.

Which, in the remains of a formerly populous bandit camp, strewn with debris, was not a totally brilliant idea. Not watching where she was walking, Lina's foot was the vicious victim of a root that had seen the world above ground for the first time in its life and was just leaping for joy, leaving an unfortunate space in which a foot could get caught.

...ok, it was a non-magic, non-sentient root of a non-magic, non-sentient tree so that didn't really happen. But the facts remain, there _was_ space for a foot to get caught and Lina's did exactly that!

Yelping, Lina's arms wheeled about for that precious second when you realise you're falling but can do nothing to stop it. In her surprise, Lina's grip on the jewel loosened a tad too much and it went flying. Spinning at the sound of Lina's yelp, Gourry's finely honed reflexes prevent the jewel from just smacking him in the face. Without consciously thinking about it his hand shot up and caught it inches from his face.

Ignoring the prick of pain from where his finger had cut itself on the tip of the jewel, unknown to him as the same place Lina cut herself earlier, he ran back to check on her.

Growling angrily, Lina battered away Gourry's offered hand pulled herself up. "I'm fine, just tripped. Who the hell puts roots in place like this, stupid trees." Moving past her irrational anger at trees and their irresponsible placement of vital growths, Lina noticed the wound on Gourry's thump. It wasn't very large, and an outsider observer might notice that one would have be paying very particular attention to Gourry's wellbeing to see it. Of course, said outside observer would require immunity to a number of magic attacks, fire, lighting and Lina's short sword if they wanted to share this without being reclassified as a corpse.

Conveniently, the outside observer was, or close enough. It was up for debate whether he could be classified as living anyway, at least according to one draconic purveyor of pottery and maces. He certainly wasn't about to share. It was, after all, a secret.

But there isn't an outside observer, so it wasn't. Obviously.

"What happened to your hand?" Lina asked to distract Gourry, completely unaware of any totally hypothetical outside observers that really didn't exist. Honest.

Blinking at her in confusion, the swordsman lifted his hand and stared at it for a moment. He took a deep breath, as thought preparing to speak. Then he closed his mouth and continued to ponder this mystery.

"I think" He said, in a voice that conveyed the utter certainty he felt. "I'm bleeding."

Rubbing her fist, Lina scowled at Gourry, his face imbedded in the dirt. "Are you trying to annoy me, Jelly-fish Brain?" she growled menacingly. "_Why_ are you bleeding is what I meant. Obviously!"

Back on his feet, Gourry rubbed his chin thoughtfully, throwing up and catching the jewel absentmindedly as he thought. When Lina made a vague choking sound, he glanced at her curiously. "Something wrong?"

Her expression of terminal aggravation slowly draining away, the sorceress snatched the jewel away. "How could you not notice! You must have cut yourself when you caught _this_!" Lina shoved it in his face, pointing at the spot where their blood mingled. "Honestly, some days I doubt whether you actually use your brain. No one can be this-"

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the world would never discover exactly what Line thought no one could be that of. Distracted by her partner's idiocy, Lina hadn't noticed the subtle build up of magical energy until the last moment, and Gourry hadn't the slightest clue where magic items were concerned.

Beams of multicoloured light burst from the jewel, held between their faces. Both had time for expressions of surprise to cover their faces before the light became overwhelming and they faded from the world, both in terms of going from conscious to unconscious and in a far more literal way.

Someone prone to paranoia or delusions might think that an outside observer dropped down after the light had faded. They might speculate that this non-existent being would poke the jewel, sitting in the dirt, with his staff and make sounds vaguely of surprise. Some may even go so far as to claim this fictional fellow would attempt to pick up the object only to force away by a wave of Holy Magic.

But none would guess that he would say "Hmm, unexpected."

After all, he really didn't exist.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Charging through the halls, wreathed in flames, Natsu couldn't help but silently complain about the quality of Dark Guilds recently. After Oracion Seis, these little bandits of Dark Guilds hiding in empty castle, manors and dungeons really just didn't seem such a threat. Punching one through a door, charring a group with a roar of fire and kicking another into the wall, Natsu just hoped he wouldn't lose his touch from dealing with amateurs like this.

Elsewhere in the extremely cliché abandoned manor the Dark Guild 'Scarecrow Parliament', similar lines of thought were being followed by Erza Scarlet and Gray Fullbuster. In an unsportsman-like show of not being a team player, Lucy Heartfillia was just thinking about not getting hit by any wayward attacks as Sagittarius dealt with the mages in her area. To be fair, Sagittarius was an excellent shot. Hell, he could give Bisca and Alzack, Fairy Tail's best sharpshooters, lessons. It was the enemy mages who were the problem, having few compunctions against attempting to fry, vaporise, boil, freeze, smash or otherwise destroy the girl who summoned the weirdo in the horse costume.

The reward for dealing with this group had been too good for them to pass up, specially when Lucy noted that it meant the rest of the team could go crazy since there was nothing for them to pay for repairing. People cared far less about the mouldy bases of Dark Guilds then they did, oh, picking totally at random, surprisingly flammable opera houses.

"Moshi moshi, I believe that was the last of them, Lucy-san." The Celestial Spirit said to his summoner. "Shall we move onto the next room?"

Peeking around the corners, Lucy was fairly certain they had gotten everyone in their area. "That's alright, I think that's the lot. We better meet the others in the centre. I'm sure they'll be done ages ago." She smiled at her spirit as they made their way to the middle of the manor, where each of their areas intersected. "Thanks for your help, none of them got close."

Sagittarius gave a half bow in recognition of the praise. "Moshi moshi, not a problem. They really weren't much to deal with."

"You're tellin' me!"

Lucy and her Spirit looked up, following the voice to its source. Leaning against the corner further from them, Natsu grinned at them.

"Aye!"

The Dragon Slayer's partner announced his presence loudly as well. Happy to see them both alive and well, not that she had really been worried, Lucy returned their happy expressions.

"You got all yours Lucy?" Natsu asked curiously, sniffing the air before grinning again, even wider. "Nice work."

"Psht, it was Sagittarius who did it, not me." Lucy waved away the praise, indicating the large man next to her. "And yes, it was."

"Moshi moshi, Natsu-san."

"Yo. Either way, you two are on fire." Natsu punched the air eagerly, unable to resist using one of his fire-related expressions. Sagittarius took it in his stride. It took only a short time working with Lucy to get acquainted with the Fire Dragon Slayer, who seemed to be taking his cues from Lucy in his treatment of Celestial Spirits. Or he was possibly just acting that way without realising it. They hadn't worked it out yet, but Leo (the majority of the Spirits referred to Loki by his traditional name) claimed it was the second. Mostly because Natsu couldn't take a hint if it followed him for hours and wouldn't let go after biting him.

The group of four continued on their way, eventually reaching the circular chamber the Scarecrow Parliament mage they had interrogated before entering had told them was the centre of the manor. Clearing out a few survivors who were doing their best to escape down a set of revolving stairs, they waited patiently for the others to arrive. Ignoring the pile of unconscious mages, Lucy let Sagittarius return to the Celestial Spirit World.

It came as a great shock, when Lucy was doing her best to convince Natsu to wait until Erza and Gray had arrived before heading down the mysterious stairs, when the ground and walls lit up with arcane symbols. They sprang from the entrance to the stairs, leaping out to run the lengths and breadths.

"What's going on?" Lucy took a step back, not that it helped since the runes were everywhere. "What's happening?" her eyes darted back and forth, trying to work out what was going. Happy echoed her concern, not living up to his name at all.

"Told ya we should have gone down!" Natsu hollered, apparently all too cheerful at this turn of events. Grapping Lucy's arm, he began to charge towards the stairs.

"Wait wait wait!" she shouted at him. "They'll be expecting us to come down the stairs, right? We should find a different way down." Lucy explained, hoping to get through to him.

"Aye!"

That gave him pause, but only for a second. Grinning in a slightly unsettling manner, Natsu's fist sprouted flames. "Great idea, Luce! We'll burn them" he lifted both hand, letting go of Lucy, fire blooming into a raging inferno. "From ABOVE!" He brought his arms down, hard.

The intense heat, combined with the sheer strength behind his attack, burnt through the old wood, vaporising the carpet covering it like it had never been there. Lucy screamed, fearing that she'd be burnt to a crisp by Natsu's carelessness. She needn't have worried, for the flames were concentrated on the spot immediately beneath Natsu.

Not much reassurance when it caused the rest of the floor to give way and take them all with it. Screaming in terror, and embarrassment when she realised her skirt was flying up and giving Natsu and Happy a free show, Lucy fell alongside the Dragon Slayer and Exceed. Both of whom remained extremely calm, if you counted howling in excitement and glee as 'calm' compared to terrified screaming.

Lucy ceased screaming when she felt arms circle her waist and a sudden control to their descent. Looking up, she found herself held against Natsu, Happy's wings spreading out from behind him.

"Yo." He grinned at her, and Lucy suddenly felt reassured. At least now she had Natsu to soften their landing, if things came to it. A 'ach' escaped her throat when they landed, softly at least, after Natsu's arms had let go and her feet weren't quite ready.

It was from her sitting position that Lucy saw the circle of faces, alternating between surprise, rage, fear and what seemed to be constipation.

"You can't stop us now, Light Guild fools!" One of them, either the leader or a big mouth, yelled suddenly. "With this ritual, we, the mages of Scarecrow Parliament, will summon a horror from a beyond your imaginations to destroy you al-" leader or big mouth, a flaming fist to the face was more then enough to shut him up.

"Feh, you talked too much." Natsu's grin was maniacal, far more evil then these idiots would ever be able to manage. "You guys better be ready, cause I'm gonna burn you into char!"

"**Fire Dragon's Roar!**"

His blast of flame slammed into three of the circle, reducing them to three heavily burnt unconscious idiots. Natsu dropped into a handstand, roaring his spell as he spun in circle, feet spread wide.

"**Fire Dragon's Claw!**"

The agonised cries of more of the Scarecrow Parliament inner circle filled the room. Glancing at his fallen fellows, the last of them cast a look at the legal guild mages. The notion that the girl ducking to avoid the fire could be used as a hostage briefly occurred to him. In a rare insight, the mage decided that ticking off the fire guy by taking his girlfriend hostage was not a good a idea. Besides, if this was him normally he didn't want to see him angry. The second Natsu's attention turned to him he lifted his hands, practically screaming "I surrender!"

"Tsch, fine." Natsu grumbled, hissing at the surrender. "No fun."

"Watch what you're doing with those flames!" Lucy yelled at him, getting up and glaring fiercely, which he entirely failed to notice.

"Ah, you're okay." He grinned and waved her concerns away.

"That's not the point!" she screamed, this time in anger instead of fright.

Natsu never got the chance to reply, what with the sudden, multicoloured light which spawned above them. Looking up, all four, legal mages, cat and Dark Guild mage, found their eyes riveted to the dancing colours. They stared dully at them, watching the coursing light consolidate and forming into shapes. Before the pair of vaguely human shapes could be indentified, they flared brightly. Temporally blinded, everyone looked away until at last it faded.

Eyes still adjusting to the sudden lack of light, no one saw the cause but all heard the loud thumps of things hitting the ground, and a brief yowl of pain. Natsu's nose twitched as it caught two brand new scents.

Finally able to see, Natsu stared at the two unconscious people lying at the centre of circle in astonishment. Lucy and Happy soon joined him, neither able to explain. Eventually, all three craned their necks to stare at the surviving Scarecrow Parliament mage.

Meeting them with confusion of his own, the mage shrugged. "Not mine. If we could summon a girl, we'd know it. And she'd have bigger breasts, not tiny like that."

Out of the corner of her eye Lucy caught a twitch from the unconscious redhead. Unknown to any of them, it certainly was lucky that she was asleep. Had she heard, she'd have put the whole of Fairy Tail to shame where property damage is concerned.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, I'm working away at the next one. Please review, it makes me feel important, special and warms my urge to write more.


	2. Chapter 2

Well, second chapter! Huzzah! Its about 8,450 words long, so its a _little_ bit longer.

Thanks to Uzumakijiraya for first review, and to InuOtaku911 for the second. If there's anyone reading who hasn't read it, give Inu's Ramna/Slayers crossover "Anything Goes Dragon Slave" a read. Its great, got 18 chapters, with more on the way. I certainly enjoy it.

Also: note that the spell "Explosion Array" is Dill Brand. I just like the name Explosion Array more, after watching Slayers Perfect (Or 'The Motion Picture' if you prefer.

Other than that, all speed ahead.

Oh, and please review. I'd love more reviews.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Waking up in strange and unusual places with faces she had never seen before looking down at her was not, strictly speaking, an entirely new experience for Lina. And on first look this place wasn't as bad as some she had found herself in over the years. Of course, she was having trouble with actually seeing properly at the moment.

"Miss, are you ok?" One of the faces asked. Biting back a groan, Lina tried to reply. All that came out were coarse coughs. "Whoa! Natsu, do you have any water?" the face with blonde hair turned towards one with pink. Despite her bleary vision and dusty throat, Lina couldn't help but snigger when the pink-haired head spoke in a male voice. A guy with _pink_ hair!

"Why would I have water? What sort of Dragon needs _water_?" the voice, Natsu apparently, was full of confidence, but something about it made Lina doubt its source was the sort to ever _not_ feel confident. You learnt to recognise the signs after a while. Adventuring gave you a wide experience in various archetypes, as it were.

"The sort which keeps hydrated or has common sense?" the first voice was one Lina could sympathise with, speaking volumes about dealing with companions who were a few cards short of a deck.

A third, higher pitched but still vaguely male voice said "I've found a cup!"

"Good work, Happy, but we still need something to put _in _the cup." The girl pointed out. Lina's vision was clearing up, giving her a better view of the room and the people above her.

Coughing, Lina lifted a hand to get their attention. Casting her eyes around, she did at double take at what appeared to be a blue cat with wings. Deciding to work this out later, she also saw the cat was holding a wooden goblet. Waving, she tried to get him to bring it over. Finally, one of them got it. The girl, unsurprisingly.

"I think she wants the goblet. Happy, give it to her."

"Aye!" the cat flew over and dropped it in her outstretched hand.

Trying to clear her throat, Lina held a hand over the goblet. "_Aqua Create._" She croaked, breaking into a fit of coughing. Her three watchers stared as water appeared from nowhere and filled the goblet. Desperately gulping the cleansing liquid, she ignored their conversation.

"Guess she must be a mage. Water magic, like Juvia?" the girl asked.

Natsu shrugged. "She smells weird." Was all he said.

Thirst quenched and throat clear, Lina cocked her arm back and sent the goblet spinning into his pink-haired head. "Oi, you saying I smell bad?" she growled at him. "I should blast you into next week, you pink-haired punk!" the redhead's glare was enough that some would fear it might set Natsu on fire, were he not inflammable. Further argument was forestalled by Gourry's mumbling.

"Nng, Lina? What happened?" He seemed to be in a fitter state then she had been upon awakening.

Lina shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think it was that jewel. Speaking of which, is it around here?" she began to search the room. "Hey, you guys seen a jewel with a lot of colours, in a big gold coin?" she asked the mysterious strangers. The blonde said she hadn't, as did 'Natsu' and the cat, Happy. "Damn, guess it didn't come with us."

Standing at his full height, he grinned at the three of them. "Hi, I'm Gourry. That's Lina. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah yeah, hi and all that." Lina added absently. Something felt..._wrong_ about this place. Not evil or anything, just...different.

"Um, pleased to meet you. I'm Lucy-" the blonde girl began to say, only to be interrupted by her boisterous companions.

"And I'm Natsu!" he punched the air, practically roaring his name.

"Aye, I'm Happy!" the blue cat joined in. Lina's eyebrow cocked in curiosity at the strange creature.

"Sure you are." Lina cast a look around before asking the question that was on her mind. "Where, exactly, are we? Last I remember, we'd finished trashing the bandit camp and we leaving, now look at it." Gourry made a sound of agreement. Lina glanced at the three strangers. "Ah, thanks for the goblet and all but, are in the Outer World or Inner?"

"Uh, Outer World? Inner? Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. This is just the basement of some Dark Guild, near Magnolia." Lucy answered, confused. At the blank look on both newcomers' faces, she added "You know, Magnolia? In Fiore? Does the term 'Earthland' help?" She 'd already been to another world, these people might be from one of them if they weren't just crazy.

"~Lucy doesn't know!~ ~Lucy doesn't know!~ ~Lucy doesn't know!~" sang Happy, apparently deciding that in response to this mystery he might as well annoy Lucy. The Celestial Spirit Mage scowled at the cat but ignored him, used to his more annoying habits.

Frowning, Lina made to get a closer look him. "What are you anyway, some kind of beastman? A chimera?" Lina rubbed her chin, one eye closed, head on an angle, in an expression of thought.

"Happy's a cat, not a beast. Or a chimer-whatsit." Natsu shouted, taking vague offence. Lucy made to calm him down, but Lina beat her to the punch.

"A cat? He's blue, has wings and TALKS! There is no way he's an ordinary cat." Lina retorted.

"Lina-" Gourry tried to get his partner's attention.

"Shut it, Gourry, can't you see I'm in the middle of something here." She waved him off, gearing up for a good row.

"But Lina-"

"What did I just say?" Lina spun to face him, hands on hips. The words died in her throat as she stared at what he was pointing at. "Who the hell is that?"

Ignored by everyone until now, the last remaining member of Scarecrow Parliament had taken up a hidden wand, charged full of magic. He pointed it at redhead. Having weighed up his options, he was willing to bet that trying to use one the legal mages as a hostage was a bad idea. This girl didn't look so tough, though the blond guy might be a bit of a challenge, but he at least didn't have any magic.

"Surrender, or I'll turn the girl into goo!" He jabbed the wand in her direction, in what he thought was threatening way but just made Lina giggle and Gourry snicker. They had face _far_ more menacing things then a twig in some dork's hands. It didn't help that the wand _was_ barely more than a twig of wood. The guy who made it said it was to make it easy to hide, but he evidently hadn't thought it entirely through. His face went red at the lack of impact his words had. "Stop laughing! I mean it!" but they just kept on going, soon spreading to the three legal mages. Choking in rage, he waved it and sparks of arcane energy sprinkled from its tip. That just made it worse, looking for all the world like his wand was actually shotting sparkles. Lina's head was facing the floor by now, unable to keep her head straight at this. Anger overpowering him, he spat "SHUT UP! YOU STUPID BREASTLESS LITTLE BITCH!"

Gourry and Lina's laughter came to a sudden stop. Gourry shot a worried glance at Lina, who had seemingly frozen. He gulped loudly, causing Lucy, Natsu and Happy to look to him to see what all the fuss is about.

"Is something wrong, Gourry-san?" Lucy asked politely, not noticing the low growling sound that was emanating from Lina. Her face became concerned when she saw Lina. Her expression changed when the growling became louder and Lina lifted her head slightly, eyes still hidden by her hair's shadow. A single point of red light seemed to shine from one of her pupils.

"What. Did you. Call. ME?" an aura of malevolence filled the room, a Lina's was a voice that could commit murder, frame a perfectly innocent man who regularly donated to charities and was regarded by the community as a Decent Citizen, get away with it and drink tea with a smug smirk across the street from the court when the innocent man was being convicted.

The Scarecrow Parliament mage nearly wet himself when he looked in her eyes, but some small, insane part of him still possessed a backbone. Or he was too afraid to lie. "A-a b-breastl-less l-litt little b-bitch?" he squeaked. Probably the second.

"Grrrrr." Her eye twitched, and Gourry's expression became horrified as she began chanting. Her hands rising together as power flickered and formed between them.

"_Darkness beyond twilight..._"

Turning to the other three in the room, he ran for them, shouting "Run!" Light began to grow from around Lina, her hair and cape flowing up as though gravity had reversed.

"_Crimson beyond the blood that flows..._"

They had just enough time to look confused before he grabbed them and began sprinting up through the door he spotted and up the stairs.

"_Buried in the flow of time..._"

The terrified illegal mage stared in shock at the growing ball of energy between Lina's hands, unable to move away.

"_In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness..._"

"What's happening?" Lucy asked Gourry as he pulled them up the stairs, full tilt. "What's she doing?"

"_Let all the fools who stand in our way be destroyed..._"

"Nothing good!" he answered as they burst through the open door into the upper level. Only a combination of Gourry's quick reflexes and the shining steel blade that appeared in front of them stopped him from sending all four back down, via the large hole in the floor.

"_by the power you and I possess..._"

Glaring at the man who appeared to be holding their team mates captive, Erza Scarlet and Gray Fullbuster blocked the way. They simply assumed his panicked his expression was in response to them. Opening her mouth to demand he realise her friends, Erza was cut off when the last line of Lina's spell echoed up from below. Gourry's face dropped.

"_DRAGON SLAVE!_"

The manor _rose_.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Ugh, what happened? WHOA!"

That incredibly context appropriate question was both asked and exclaimed by Natsu, pushing his way from beneath a light pile of rubble. What greeted him, a crater that had not only destroyed the mansion, but also the clearing which it had stood...and the the edge of the forest, although only if you thought the 'edge' was about a hundred meters into the forest.

"Owwww." Gourry, lying nearby and rubbing where something had hit his skull, answered. "That was Lina. She's...sensitive about certain things."

"'Aye! Her breasts!', he says." That was, completely unpredictably, from Happy. Well, it had originated from Happy.

"'Happy!', she says." Said Horologium , the Celestial Clock. Lucy was safely inside, Happy with her. Whether the Clock had appeared of his own volition, as her Celestial Spirits had began to do recently, or if Lucy had summoned him in a bid to escape the blast, he had protected both her and Happy.

Gourry stared at it in amazement. "Wow, what's tha-"

"You!" the same blade which had barred his path reappeared, pressing against his throat from above.

"Gah!" he tried to jerk back, but hit something hard. Looking up, he met the fiery gaze of a different redhead then usual. "Uh, hi?" he tried smiling, but she pressed the blade a tad harder, her expression severe and eyes narrow. Violence glinted from them darkly.

"No one tries capturing my friends and blowing us up." She hissed threateningly. "I'll teach you what it means to mess with Fairy Tail!"

"Wait, Erza! WAIT!" Lucy came to his defence. "He didn't cause this! It was his friend, a girl back there, who tried to blow everything up!" it took her a second to realise what she had said, hinted by the look Erza gave her. "Wait, that came out wrong! Just, don't-"

"That'll teach you, you bastard! No one insults me like that and gets away with it! AHAHAHA!"

All their heads craned towards the figure rising from the smoking centre of the crater that had replaced the mansion...and the dark countryside around it. A female voice cackled from within the smoke, in an alarmingly demented the way. Judging from the expression on Erza's face, Lucy didn't think this improved matters. Things weren't helped when Lina's voice added "Heh, nothing like getting blasted to teach punks a lesson."

"She's the one?" Erza asked Lucy, who was looking nervous.

"Err, yeah, but she didn't mean t-"

She was cut off by Lina's shriek. The smoke had cleared enough for the sorceress to see them. Or more exactly, to see Erza with a blade held against her cru- her friend's throat. "Hey, get away from him!" Lina shot towards them, flying through the air at full speed. The look on her face was one begging for conflict. Few things set her off like seeing someone threaten the man she lo- was friends with. Added to the fact they were in a strange place and someone, granted someone likely buried under rubble, had insulted her bust.

"Lucy, keep an eye on this one!" Erza shouted as she matched Lina's charge. Her armour glowed, seemingly vanishing for a moment before being replaced by her Black Wing Armour. "I'll deal with the little girl."

Before Lucy could reply, Lina's furious shout filled the air.

"LITTLE GIRL? I'M GONNA BLAST YOU!"

"Oh god." Lucy dropped to her knees, losing all hope of preventing conflict. Comic tears ran down her cheeks. "Why can't we do things without violence for _once_? Please, just once!"

Gourry offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure things will work out. They always do, no matter how many places or people Lina blows up. Besides, looking at their faces I doubt we could stop them." He said in calm voice. The Celestial Spirit Mage just stared at him, mouth open in shock. She turned her head away, thinking '_What sort of person is she?'_ Even so, she was forced to agree. Neither redhead looked in the mood to be calm.

"_Flare Arrow!_" Lina lifted higher when Erza became airborne herself, hands parallel in front of her chest. With a wave of her hand a dozen flaming bolts appeared, shooting through the air towards her target. Smirking confidently, Erza nimbly dodged each arrow. Lina, however, wasn't done. "_Dis Fang!_" a shadow spawned from behind her, forming into a vaguely draconic shape with glowing eyes. Roaring, it shot towards the Fairy Tail mage. It screeched in dismay when she ducked beneath it jaw, turning into a howl of pain as her magic sword bit into its neck. The cry died away after its head came loose, the body breaking apart and fading.

"Not good enough, Dark mage!" Erza shouted, approaching Lina at speed. For a moment, Lina's face held an expression of panic, but the cunning sorceress hadn't spent hours training with Gourry for nothing. Her short sword was in her hand fast, and an _Astral Vine_ spell covering it a few heart beats.

"Ack!" the sorceress still barely managed to block the large sword, and the strength behind it was too much for her to hold off for long. Erza evidently knew that, smiling darkly over their crossed blades. "_Diem Wind._" A ball of air grew in Lina's unoccupied left hand, but it remained there only a moment. Erza was blown back by the sudden gust, long enough for Lina to get some distance and launch another spell, one she buffed up for the occasion. "_Wind, crimson flame. Grant the power of thunder to my hand! Dig Volt!_" Enhanced by a chant she no longer needed, the blast of lightning was a marvel of electrical power.

Her armoured enemy saw the lightning, reflexively requipping. The blast struck her head on, and below the other Fairy Tail mages, plus Gourry, cried out in dismay. Gray, recently uncovered from the remains of the manor and left without a chance to goggle at the massive crater, shot Gourry a suspicious look, but he needn't bother. Gourry was a naturally pleasant person, and while confident that things would be sorted out in the end, even he was forced to admit that things really wouldn't go well if Lina fried someone. And he still got tense when the other redhead got close to the girl he l- was friends with.

A figure fell from the impact point, silhouette remarkably different than before. Lina stared at the flowing white armour and the spear her opponent now had. Without the flight abilities of her Dark Wing Armour, she couldn't remain aloft but unable to dodge fast enough, Erza had requipped her Lightning Empress Armour. Even so, the Knight of Fairy Tail had still felt that attack. As she fell, Erza couldn't help but wonder at her foe's magic. She had displayed flight magic, fire magic, item enhancement magic, wind magic and now blasts of lightning that rivalled Laxus. This would be tricky.

Gaining speed as she fell, Erza saw the smaller redhead following her, though she kept her distance. A glow suffused her body, requipping back into her Black Wing Armour. Controlling her descent, Erza began to curve instead of simply stopping, intending to speed along ground. Looking back up at her enemy, a plan formed when she spotted a gathering of columns and pillars that had been collected by the explosion. She didn't know what other magic the little redhead knew, but there was one thing she did know about her. She had a sore spot.

"Too scared to follow me, little girl?" She called back. Lina's jaw dropped, and she seemed to struggle to find exactly how to respond to that. In the end, she just screamed incoherently and shot after the mage.

Erza disappeared among the fallen pillars, weaving between them. Sending back constant taunts, she was certain her trap would be sprung. For Lina's part, she knew that other redhead was taunting her, was drawing her in for an ambush or something but...

"NO ONE CALLS ME THAT AND GET AWAY WITH IT!" Stopping above the rubble her target had hidden in, Lina lifted her hands, maniacal smirk on her face. "Take this! _Fireball! Freeze Arrow! Flare Lance! Explosion Array!_" She frantically launched spell after spell, quickly reducing the rubble to fragments and smoke. Each spell added more dust and smoke, sending debris flying high into the air, and soon the cloud had grown huge. When she finally felt satisfied, Lina stopped. Further away, the rest were staring at the huge dust cloud. Lucy feared for Erza, but Gray just watched, feeling like something was wrong. He absently noted that Gourry was distressed as well.

Then it clicked. "Heh, nice one Erza." He didn't realise he had spoken the thought aloud until he realised everyone was looking at him questioningly. Shrugging, he just said to Gourry "Watch and learn, blondy. Your friend just sealed her fate."

"Huh? What do you me- hey, your shirt's gone." Gourry noted. While Gray hurriedly began searching for his clothing, everyone else turned their attention back to the fight.

Smirking, Lina considered how unfortunate it was that the dust hid her defeated enemy from seeing the winner. A thought wandered across her mind for a moment, causing her to blink and look at the smoke as if she had never seen it before. A sense of dread welled up in her and she broke out in a sweat. The smoke was nearly her height, and she couldn't see anything into it.

The perfect cover.

"DAMMI-ahh!"

A shape burst from the dust, a long sword gripped in both hands. Erza, face set in a triumphant smirk, slashed horizontally at Lina. Her blade was dead on, and far too fast for the sorceress to block. At the last moment, Erza turned the blade to hit with its flat side. Thus, both were confused when Erza failed to hit Lina, passing just over her head. They stared at each other for a moment, until Lina realised the swordswoman seemed to be getting smaller. Or further away. It was then that she realised she hadn't renewed the _Levitation_ spell.

Erza came after her, but Lina was experienced enough to remain calm and cast her spell again. Soon, the chase was on, only this time it was Lina who fled. Keeping just barely ahead of the more buxom redhead, Lina glanced back, wagging her tongue and pulling an eye down in mocking. Erza scowled and tried to boost her speed, but Lina had been using _Levitation _for years, and knew tricks to help her stay out of reach. It seemed the race would go on forever, but something suddenly ended the battle.

Something very hard, moving very fast, which had spent most of its existence sitting in a wall as one stone among thousands until it had briefly known great heights when Lina's crazy barrage of magic had given it lift off.

It came as a great surprise to all involved, hurtling from above to slam into Lina's skull. She knew sharp pain for a moment, and then it all went black. Unfortunately, unconsciousness dispelled her _Levitation_. This did not extend to the momentum generated while flying, and so she fell, head first, onto the ground. But it didn't stop there, she hit the ground and kept going. And crunched. And bounced again. And kept going.

Gourry's eyes went wide the moment she got hit, and was sprinting towards her when she first hit the group. His distressed cry of "LINA!" filled the air. Erza started at the sound of pain, despair and fear crammed into one word. She caught one look at Gourry's face, filled with heartbreak and fear, for the Fairy Tail mage to decide on what to do with this turn of events. Without the constant, conscious acceleration, Erza was able to catch up with Lina in seconds. She let go of her sword and stretched her arms, catching Lina before she could bounce for a third time.

Landing near the blonde swordsman, she held the wounded the sorceress in her arms. Erza felt something wet on her arm and realised it was blood, dripping from Lina's head.

"Lina!" Gourry leapt forward, worry etched across his face. "Is she okay? Dammit, where's Amelia? Dammit dammit dammit!" he swore at the sight of the freely flowing blood. Looking at his face, Erza felt a pang of guilt. Looking back, she knew that the fight was partly her fault. Well, a bit more then partly but the girl in her arms hadn't exactly been any more willing to try being peaceful.

"Erza, what happened?" Lucy asked, reaching her with Natsu and Gray following. She went pale at the blood, and the obvious location of the wound. "Oh god, what happened?" Erza caught the implications of looks on her team mate's face. Not an enemy. Woops.

"A piece of debris from those attacks of hers hit her. I think she has some broken bones from hitting the ground as well." She told her team and the swordsman. "We need to get her wound wrapped and find a hospital."

"Hospital?" Gourry asked. "Don't any of you know White Magic? What-what about a shrine or healer nearby? She needs a healer, not bandages." His voice was still full of worry and pain, but something in it had hardened.

They gave him confused looks, before Lucy spoke up. "Um, I don't know what it's like where you're from, but here healing is a Lost Magic. There's practically no one around who can do it." His face fell and went deadly pale, so she hastened to add. "But its good news for you; we have someone with it in our guild."

"Guild?" he questioned, before shaking his head. "Doesn't matter. Where?" His voice was hard again. He knew what he needed to do, he just needed to know which direction to go in.

Lucy tried to reassure him. "We'll take you there, don't worry. I said we were near Magnolia before? Well, that's where our guild is."

"Before that, we need to stop the bleeding." Erza said. With a flicker of light she held a first aid kit, one of them many she had on hand. She _did_ work with Natsu, after all.

As his team mates went to work, and Gourry watched with a painful sense of helplessness, Gray turned to Natsu and asked the question he had been wondering since the explosion.

"Just who the hell are these people?"

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

The doors of the Fairy Tail Guild House bursting open was not, in and of itself, an odd event. It was, in fact, quite usual and if more then a few hours went by without it bursting open it would have been remarkable. As such, Makarov had invested in very strong doors. He even got a warranty and insurance on them. Bursting open at the coming of Natsu's team, accompanied by a tall young man with long blond hair, who was a swordsman if the armour and sword were any indication, carrying a young lady with a thick bloodstained bandaged around her head, all calling loudly for Wendy, was actually rather surprising. Except for said Sky Dragon Slayer and the Iron Dragon Slayer, who had both looked up before anyone else had heard the dim ratchet. Wendy had even gotten up and started to make her way towards the door. At the sight of wounded girl, she had started running.

"Wendy, she needs healing, fast." Erza's voice informed her arbitrarily. "A large piece of stone stuck her on the head. We've tried to staunch the blood, but..." she trailed off, letting the combination of the bloody bandage and the swordsman's expression fill in the details.

Nodding, Wendy directed him to put the girl on a table that had been thoughtfully cleared. The rest of the guild had fallen silent, apparently sensing that now really wasn't the time for fun and games. Also, a couple felt a bit nervous about the blond guy. He just looked worried, but something about him suggested he didn't need magic to beat you bloody. Wendy held her hand to the wound, a blue glow appearing as she summoned her magic. Eyes closed, she magically inspected the wound for a moment or two. Soon, confident that she could heal it, she opened her eyes and smiled.

"I can heal her. The wound wasn't too deep, although she's lost a lot of blood. But when I'm done she'll be fine." Some of tension ran out of the swordsman, and the look of gratefulness he gave her sent a tingle of warmth done her back. She smiled at him before getting to work. Wendy might be getting better at fighting, but there was nothing like the feeling of fixing someone, of helping others in a way no one else could. Here, she was truly in her element. Despite this, she could smell the substantial anxiety the swordsman hadn't let go of yet. He was waiting for his friend to actually be healed before he relaxed.

The glow intensified, and Wendy's eyes closed once more. Nothing was said for the long seconds, her magic surrounding Lina's wounded skull. Gourry noted the bruises left on her arms from the fall were fading away. At last, after a full minute, Wendy opened her eyes and let her magic recede. Lina's breathing had changed to the calm, natural pace of sleep.

Smiling at Gourry, Wendy said "She's all better now, she just needs to rest for a bit." There was a brief period of cheering from the assembled mages of Fairy Tail, for while they might not know who the pair were, why one was injured or anything, they knew good news when they heard it.

Thanking Wendy, Gourry didn't notice the small Guild Master until he was standing on the table next to him. "So, who might you be young man?" Makarov asked politely. The moment they had entered, he'd sensed something different about the two of them. You didn't become one of the Ten Wizard Saints without being a master of magic, and you didn't become a master of magic without developing certain sixth senses. And his were screaming at him that they both reeked of an unfamiliar energy.

"Oh, I'm Gourry Gabriev." Now that Lina was safe, he relaxed easily. The very small old man was odd, but he'd seen odder. Quite often in fact. "She's Lina. She got hit by a rock. Nice to meet you." He extended a hand to the old man.

Shaking firmly, he replied "the same to you. I'm Master Makarov. Of Fairy Tail, obviously." He added, a tad unnecessarily, taking a swig from his drink.

A look of incomprehension came over Gourry's face. "Fairy Tail? What's that?"

That brought Makarov up short, as well as everyone less who heard. Since most of the guild had gotten closer to inspect the newcomers, that was a lot of people who were staring at Gourry as if he'd asked what the sky is.

Spluttering, Makarov coughed out the drink he had nearly taken down the wrong pipe. "You-you don't know Fairy Tail?" he asked, shocked. When Gourry shook his head, there was a chorus of disbelief from the guild. "Where are you from?"

"That's a bit...complicated, Master." Lucy answered for him. One of Makarov's eyebrows rose, an expression of curiosity "They kind of...appeared." she said nervously. "We –Natsu, me and Happy, I mean – were in this room beneath the Dark Guild, and some of them were trying some summoning ritual. Anyway, Natsu beat them all up and then there was a flash of light, and they there. They were both unconscious, but she woke up first. And then, well..." Lucy wasn't sure how to continue.

"She was awesome!" Natsu picked up for her. "She chanted a bit and BLEW UP the whole mansion! It was cool!"

Makarov's face froze. "She..blew up a mansion? Why? How?"

Chuckling, Gourry answered that. "Well, there was a guy down there who called her a..." checking to make sure Lina was still unconscious, since it never hurt to check, he lowered his voice. "a breastless little bitch." He kept an eye on Lina, just to be sure.

"Well, that was rather rude." Makarov admitted as the story was passed to those who hadn't heard when Gourry spoke quietly. "But, really, a whole mansion?"

"Lina has a bit of a...sore spot." The swordsman said, before smiling again. "But don't worry, she doesn't always blow up whole mansions when people insult her about it. Sometimes she'll just set fire to it, or blow up a room or two." His voice conveyed that he felt his words were reassuring, which they really weren't.

"I guess that explains why she got so angry." Erza mused off to the side. When Guild Master looked her questioningly, she explained the fight the pair had gotten into. "I was a bit hasty, but she did just blow up a whole mansion and it looked like her companion was holding my team mates."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Makarov wondered why things were never simple.

"Ugh, what happened?" everyone looked to the source of voice. Lina, barely awake, reached up and felt her head. Opening her eyes, she caught sight of Gourry. "Gourry, what the hell happ- WHAT THE HELL?" She shouted when she pulled the bandage from her head, soaked in blood. Frantically, her hands roved over her skull until Wendy, sitting at the bench, spoke up.

"It's alright Miss, I healed you."

Turning to look at the young girl, Lina just blinked before responding with an eloquent "Huh?"

Gourry got her attention again. "These guys brought us back here after a rock hit you in the head." He explained. She stared at him before looking around.

"Oh, thanks, I gu- YOU!" she suddenly roared, springing to her feet and point at Erza. Her hands closed, gathering power. "Calling me a damn little girl, I'm gonna-"

"Wait, Lina!" Gourry jumped in front of her. "These guys are good, it was a mistake."

Lina wasn't about to let it go at that. "Mistake? No one gets away with insulting me! Now get out of the way, or I'm blasting you too." She growled, voice icy cold.

"You'd blow up your own friend to get to someone who insulted you?"Erza asked, appalled.

Lina shrugged, ignoring Gourry's frantic attempts to calm. "Eh, Gourry's tough. I've seen him take fire balls and keep going. Besides" she beared her teeth, one remarkably fang like. "I warned him."

The tension mounted, everyone watching and waiting. Erza preparing to change armour and Lina building power. Makarov was about to intervene, hoping to calm things down and sort out something peacefully, when Mirajane did it a way far more effective.

She appeared next to Lina and Gourry, a plate of food in each hand. "I thought your guests might be hungry, so I whipped up something to eat." She smiled, as if one of their 'guests' wasn't about to start fighting Erza.

Both of the newcomers' expressions changed instantly, and in a blink they were seated at the table. "Itadaki-masu!" they both said loudly, before digging into their meals. Mirajane just stood there, smiling, as both complimented her with full mouths, all three apparently unaware of the rest of the guild staring at them.

"My, you're both eating fast. Would you like some more?" Mirajane asked kindly. It was true, both were nearly done.

Looking up, Lina asked, after swallowing "That'd be great! I don't suppose you have a menu?" she asked, as if it would change her order. Mirajane produced it, seemingly out of nowhere. "Ohhh, nice. How about...one of everything?" she asked hopefully.

That, at least, got a new reaction out of Mirajane. "One of everything? Are you sure, just for you and Gourry-san?"

Lina blinked, than nodded, smacking her forehead. "Right, that was silly of me." She said, as if embarrassed. "Make that _two_ servings of everything, please." She smiled as sweetly as she knew, like the hand which held her fork wasn't in the midst of a defensive action against Gourry's prowling eating utensils. While she had been talking, he'd finished his food and set his eye on hers. "Oi, get away!"

While they patiently waited for more food, Lina was persuaded that starting a fight with Erza was not the best course of action. For one thing, they wouldn't have the chance to eat. This was helped greatly by an apology. Unfortunately, since the conversation was essentially 'It was your fault, but also mine, so let's just pretend it didn't happen.' No one was entirely certain who had apologised. All that mattered was that, for now, Lina was unlikely to start a fight with anyone. Besides, she was curious about where they are.

"So, you've never heard of Seyruun? What about Zephilia? The Elmekian Empire? The Desert of Destruction?" Lina rattled off a list of nations and greater natural land marks, such as mountain ranges, all to shaking heads. Scowling, she sat back and thought hard. "We might be somewhere even further then the area where we fought Valgaav. Or maybe..." another possibility entered her mind. "I don't suppose you have a map of the whole world? Like, from this area all the way aro- FOOD!" she cut herself off as Mirajane appeared, flanked by the waitresses, all bearing plates and bowls.

Drooling, she and Gourry dug in, eating at an outrageous pace. While they did so, Makarov decided to ask about a possibility he had been considering since learning Lina used magic, though he still didn't have a clear picture as to its nature.

"So, you're lost?" they had also explained something of what the pair had been doing before the treasure they had founded had glowed. Lina nodded, barely taking her eyes away from the food in front of her. "What if you can't find your way back? You might be here for a while." Something in his voice alerted those who weren't staring with open mouths at the sheer monstrous speed Lina and Gourry were eating at to his intentions. At Lina's distracted nod, he continued. "Well, if that's the case maybe you'd be interested in joining our guild? We're always on the look out for more mages." If he was honest with himself, a lot of the reason Makarov was making the offer was because he wanted to keep a close eye on these two. Both of them, especially the girl, smelt more like trouble then Natsu's team put together.

Relinquishing her focus on eating for the moment, Lina swallowed and frowned at the old man. "I dunno, I'm thinking that when you say 'guild' I'm hearing a different word. Want to explain a bit more? Where I come from, guilds ain't like this. At least" she added "not the Sorcerers' Guild."

What followed was a brief explanation on the principles of Mage Guilds in Fiore, including Dark Guilds and their illegal nature.

"And your guild is pretty famous? Fairy Tail, was it?" Lina asked at the conclusion.

Natsu answered before anyone else could. "Hell yeah! We're the most destructive guild ever!" he roared.

"You idiot! That's not a good thing!" Lucy yelled at him.

"Lucy, if you're a Man, you'd agree with him!" Elfman joined Natsu in his punching of air, ignoring Lucy's 'I'm a girl!"

Munching away, Lina watched things escalate from there as more of the guild joined in, adding their praise and opinion of their guild. "Well, you've certainly got some colourful members." She said, highly amused. She seemed to be considering the idea.

Makarov drew what he hoped would be the final weight on the balance. "Being a guild with so many strong mages, we often get requests for dealing with bandits and the sort." He said it lightly. If the subtext from Lina and Gourry's banter when talking about the bandit camp from earlier was right-

"You mean we get can _paid_ for beating up bandits?" Lina asked, her eyes shining with a rather worrying level of greed.

He was right.

Blinking at the eager expression on her face, Makarov nodded slowly.

"Imagine it!" She leapt onto her, feet, standing on the bench. "Taking their loot and getting _paid_ for doing it! This place is GREAT!" The last she roared into the sky before breaking off into ecstatic laughter. Her outburst had garnered their table the attention of most of the guild, including those who had been loudly proclaiming how awesome Fairy Tail was.

Watching their strange new member (hopefully) for a moment, Makarov decided he really ought to clarify something. Coughing loudly to get her attention, he told her "Actually, the Magic Council or the quest giver takes the bandits 'loot' to return to its owners. They're usually very...precise about that." He tried to say it gently as Lina's expression fell until she seemed on the verge of breaking out into tears. Well, tears or shouting.

"HOW DARE THEY!"

Shouting it is.

Ranting at great volume on the important political issues of 'Who Deserves The Bandits Ill-Gotten-Gains, Since If She Had Beaten The Bandits She Obviously Had A Greater Claim On It And Anyway, If Its Stealing From Bandits Its Not Really Stealing, Is It?', Lina acquired the attention of what few mages hadn't been watching the newcomers since her last outburst. Soon the only one not watching her stamp back and forth furiously was her own companion, the blond swordsman devouring the food Lina had miraculously forgotten about.

Finally, after several minutes, he spoke up. "But you let Amelia return most of the stuff when we're in Seyruun. I don't see the problem."

Glaring at the one person who was supposed to be on her side, Lina scowled. "That's different, Jelly-fish brain. Amelia is a friend, and we'd never hear the end of her Justice speeches if I refused every time." Her momentum broken, Lina slid back to her seat. If Makarov was any judge, she seemed embarrassed about her rare acts of generosity. "I take it back, I preferred our world. At least there I just had to use my name to shut most people up."

"Or make them run away."

"Shut up, Jelly-fish."

Lucy, who had been previously watching the red-head rant, asked the question that popped up in most of the listener's heads; "How did that work? Just mentioning your name, I mean." It was a curious statement.

Glancing at Lucy, a grin spread across Lina's face and she seemed to regain some of her steam. "Everyone knew my name! Lina Inverse, a famously beautiful, genius Sorceress. No one doesn't know me, where we come from." Her voice was proud.

_And it makes them run away?_ Was the thought that ran through the collective minds of Fairy Tail. Gourry soon answered that, in his own alarming way.

"Yeah, she's got heaps of nicknames." He agreed, lifting a hand and ticking off fingers as he listed off Lina's titles before she could stop him. "Dra-mata, the Bandit-Killer, Enemy of All Who Live, Dragon Spooker, Girl Who Makes Dragons Step Past Out of Clear Revulsion, Flat-ch-"

Gourry, whilst displaying at least some memorising ability, failed to notice the darkening expression on Lina's face and her bunched up fists tightening. The guild was torn between Gourry's list and Lina's admittedly rather evil eyes. Red glows are never good where eyes are concerned. As such, he was unprepared for her fist cannoning into the side of his head as she howled "GOURRY!" in a manner much akin to a large, angry big cat.

"...ow..." he whined form the floor, his skull smoking.

Lina towered over the fallen Gourry from her position, standing on the bench still, her face displaying her fury. "You...you Jelly-fish Brained IDIOT!" She leapt from the bench, slamming both feet on his head. Lifting her foot, Lina proceeded to stamp on his head again and again as she yelled at him. "Why do you remember THAT? You finally use that brain of yours and _that's_ all you remember? What about my birthday? The name of the damn _GOD OF EVIL_? Why could you remember something _USEFUL_ for once?"

Now holding Gourry by his shirt and shaking him back and forth as she shouted, Lina missed the shocked expressions on the rest of building's inhabitants. Unconsciously most of the guild had taken a few steps back. Makarov continued to watch them, wary.

At last, someone interrupted Lina's tirade. "Enemy Of All Who Live?" Levy's voice was rather small and hesitant.

Lina still caught it though, the thought that maybe the people in another world who had taken them in might be a tad alarmed by her nicknames. And to be fair, the first thing she had done after waking up was destroy a mansion. She let go of Gourry and waved one hand hurriedly, as if clearing the air of a particularly horrible stench.

"Oh, that, it's nothing important. Pay Jelly-fish Brain" she smacked him on the head again. "no mind." Lina said it breezily, like it was really just 'nothing important'.

No one believed her.

"It you would be so good as to explain, I think I'll be the judge of that." Makarov's voice was firm, insistent.

With a sigh, Lina caved in. "_Fine_. I've just...got a bit of a bad reputation, that's all." She sounded annoyed. "Honestly, it's not like I've ever blown any towns up on purpose or anything, most of the time its to stop something that would have destroyed it anyway!" she exclaimed. Not paying attention, Gourry had returned to his seat and was once again eating.

"Blown up...towns?"

The sorceress shrugged, reluctantly acknowledging that it seemed a bit villainous. "Yeah, but no one ever dies. And I always have a good reason."

"Such as?"

"Well...there was this one where a lesser dragon had been set loose by some bandits-"

"Dragon!" Natsu and Wendy leapt forward, staring Lina with strange intensity. If Gajeel had been there, he'd no doubt have been doing the same. But in a grouchy way.

Blinking in surprise, Lina said "Yeah, just a lesser black. Pretty much a smart animal. Trust me, if it had been a true dragon, more than the village would have been totalled."

"Animal? Don't talk about dragons that way!" Natsu roared. "What would you know?"

Lina's reply was just as fiery as his. "What would I know? I know plenty, you little punk! I'm friends with a dragon, so I think I'd know!"

Everyone fell silent, staring at Lina. Natsu had gone pale. "Y-you know a dragon?"

Looking around, Lina nodded hesitantly. "Uh yeah. We travelled together for a while."

Swallowing his mouthful of Lina's food, Gourry added "Did you, when?"

Lina's eye twitched, and she turned to hit him again. "What's that supposed to mean? YOU were there too! Remember, Filia? Always angry at Xellos, kept letting her tail appear, TURNED INTO A HUGE GOLD DRAGON?" she yelled in his face.

He tapped his chin thoughtfully before snapping his fingers. "Oh _yeah_, Filia. I remember now." With that mystery solved, he went back to eating.

Sighing, the red-haired sorceress turned back to keep talking, only to find Natsu _much _closer now.

"Where? Does she know anything about Igneel? When?" he demanded urgently. Thoroughly confused, Lina backed away and nearly fell off the table.

"Oi, watch it. No idea what you're talking about, but I doubt I have any answers." She hesitated before continuing. "I think...we didn't get transported _across_ the world. I think we got transported _between_ worlds."

There was a moment of shock, no one really sure what to say.

Lina paid them no mind, now wholly absorbing in thinking it through. "It makes sense, in a way. That artefact had to involve a dragon and a Mazoku, Holy Magic and Black, to create. The only reasons I can imagine one to work with the other is both wanting the same thing. More allies to fight against the Mazoku for dragons, more negative emotions and possible exploitable idiots for the Mazoku." Sighing, she shook her head. "Guess it doesn't matter, now. It didn't come with us." She tapped her chin, thoroughly annoyed by the lack of information.

However, Natsu was never one to get distracted from his goal for long. "So, what's that got to do with dragons?" he demanded.

The sorceress sighed, and responded "If we did get transported to another world, we might be using the same word to describe two different creatures. We are speaking the same language, but that doesn't mean everything translate perfectly. So I doubt I can help you." Lina the last part in an apologetic tone, seeing Natsu and Wendy's hopeful expression die. "If I can look at a map, I can confirm that." Someone, presumably Levy, ran off to the library to fetch an atlas.

Suddenly, Natsu was back to his usual self. "Well, guess we'll have to keep looking!" Wendy stared up at him, surprised at his reaction. The rest of the guild wasn't, knowing as they did how often the Fire Dragon Slayer had followed dead ends and how he coped with it. "Don't worry Wendy, we'll find them. Even Gajeel's dragon as well!" he said confidently, grinning down at her. She felt her own morale increasing, Natsu's confidence spreading as it was wont to do.

"Now that's sorted, please move before you lose an arm or leg, Wendy." Charle spoke up from where she had been watching, the white Exceed sniffing disdainfully at Lina and Gourry's table manners, or lack thereof. "The way those two eat, I'd surprised if they had never tried to eat the other while in the midst of a frenzy."

In the slight gap, when Natsu was the centre of attention, Lina had returned to her meal with gusto. Currently, she and Gourry were in the middle of an epic fork duel over the last piece of chicken. The guild was soon full of battle cries such as "Its MINE, Jelly-fish Brain!", "You got the last steak, I want this one!", not to mention classics such "DROP THE FORK OR DIE!" and the ever popular "ITS MIIIIINE!".

It was an amusing spectacle, and despite the fact she still hadn't really cleared up whole "Enemy Of All Who Live" thing, it was really hard to take her very seriously when she acting like this. It wasn't long at all before Fairy Tail had divided between them, each faction cheering them on. Makarov could only sigh, fondly remembering the days when the last piece of chicken hadn't been something that became something akin to arena matches.

"So," he tried to get back on track once the remains of their meal was cleared away. "Would you please explain some more about your...reputation?"

Lina groaned, rubbing a hand her against her forehead before looking at him, a serious look in her eyes. "Ok, I'll be blunt. I'm powerful. I can destroy _cities_ if I want to." This caused more than a few gasps. She ignored them. "I'm a master of Black Magic, which in our world is simply the name for the more destructive form of magic. I can cast the single most powerful spell ever created. When you can do things like that, people take in an interest in you. People without scruples. I got a name early on, and yes I have destroyed a lot of places, largely by accident. Because of that, I get blamed for the large scale destruction that happens around me. I do cause a lot of it, I'm not denying that. In fact" she seemed to swell with pride. "I'm proud of my power. I earned it through hard work. And I've used it to stop things which would kill hundreds, thousands, millions." She shrugged. "Take it or leave it, I've got as many flaws as the next person. I might blow up a couple building, but I try not to hurt anyone and half the time, I'm destroying something that would do even more damage."

She rested her chin on her hand, elbow on the table, and met Makarov straight in the eyes.

He looked back, judging. The tension in the room mounted, everyone on edge as they awaited the Master's decision.

He wandered along the table, standing in front of Lina, who barely twitched. Gourry looked on, though with a substantial lack of awe or tension. Things would work out, or they wouldn't.

Looking into Makarov's eyes, something in Lina told her this man had a lot of power, and she wasn't just talking magical. "That certainly is a lot to take in. I understand what you're saying. So." Makarov cleared his throat, a deadly serious expression on his face.

Then he grinned.

"Still want to join?"

Staring, mouth open, Lina didn't say anything. To be honest, she'd expected him to ask her to leave. It wasn't all that uncommon, when people worked up the nerve. Not quite able to speak, she just nodded.

Woops and cheers filled Fairy Tail. They were always happy when someone joined the family.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

A world away, two figures strode into the remains of a bandit camp. To the still purely theoretical outside observer, one reeked of _happiness_ and _joy_ and, worst of all, _HOPE!_ he shuddered. Except not being real, meaning he didn't shudder. The other had the nutty taste of angst, with a fair dose of fruity depression and the sweet yet sour tinge of self-pity. Unfortunately, as was the case all too often these days, the emotions of the second was being particularly _infected_ by the emotions of the first. The unseen but still not actually existing outside observer bit back a hiss of disgust.

Searching the ruined camp, the second figure was the one who found the jewel. It wasn't really that hard, being a few feet away from a massive sack bulging with gold and valuables. Dried blood glinted on one of its tip, in its remarkably sinister fashion.

Picking up the jewel, noting its concentration of slightly diminished magic, Zelgadis Greywords, unwilling chimera, master of shamanist magic and collector of magical secrets, sighed.

Rubbing his forehead in a tired manner, he said "Dammit Lina, why are you always doing stuff like this?" Calling over his younger companion, his usually perceptive senses failed to note the shadow hidden in the trees around them. Of course, you can't perceive what doesn't exist.

Even if this non-existent shadow just had a _brilliant_ idea.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Here's the other end, hope you enjoyed the trip. If you didn't well...boo to you!

Oh, and if anyone noticed that Lina's _Levitation_ didn't last as long as it should, don't worry. That'll be addressed next chapter.

Anyway, any thoughts on character interaction is appreciated. You might note, I'm not good at doing conversations with a large number of people. Bit of a bugger, for Fairy Tail. I'm still not entirely certain what I'll do with who's working with who, since Lina and Gourry can't exactly travel Fiore by themselves.

Cya next chapter, please review.


	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter three, beta'd by InuOtaku911.

Many thanks to reviewers,  
Double-DecaKiva-Denblades: Glad you seem to like it.  
The Gandhara: Same, though I'm a bit confused about the "standing up to her", since it was pretty much 'both spoiling for a fight, both think the other hurt/tried to hurt/is intending to hurt their friend(s).  
DragonSword35d: Your sister is obviously a woman of exquisite taste. Aren't I modest?

Anyway, on with the show!

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"So, dragons, ryuzukis, where you come from are mostly priests of the shinzu-whatsits-" Natsu scratched his head, apparently stuck.

"Dragons are ryuzoku and the Shinzoku, are the four, well, three now, fragments of Flare Dragon Ceipheid, each essentially a god." Lina said. After the meal, while Makarov went in search of his Guild Marker, she had begun to explain what she knew dragons to be like, which had soon gone wildly off tangent. Now she was doing it again. "Who, as I _already said_, was effectively the god of goodness and all that sort of stuff before dying in battle with Ruby Eye Shabranigdu-"

"That name sounds...familiar." Gourry pondered, next to her. Eye twitching, Lina manage to limit herself to hitting him with a mysteriously appearing slipper before continuing.

"I'll deal with you later." She growled. "Anyway, Ceipheid broke Ruby Eye into seven pieces, placed in the souls of humans in the hopes that each time that soul was reborn it would whittle away at his power. This weakened Ceipheed, who sank back into the Sea of Chaos, effectively dying. But Ceipheed left some remnants, which became the Shinzoku known as Airlord Valwin, Aqualord Ragradia, Earthlord Rangort and Flarelord Vrabazard. The Aqualord died in a similar fashion to Ceipheed, imprisoning the Demon King of the North, who was once the sorcerer Lie Magnus, who held a reawakened piece of Shabranigdu in his soul. Ragradia also placed one of the four Retainers of Ruby Eye, the most powerful of his servants, in a human in much the same way."

"And so dragons are...?"

Sighing, Lina went on. "Dragons, the ryuzoku, serve the Shinzoku as their priests, worshippers and warriors. Any questions?" Luckily, they had retained the major details in physical differences between her kind of dragon and theirs the first time.

Lucy had one, actually sensible. "Did it work? Splitting Ruby Eye into seven pieces, I mean." She clarified when Lina sent her a mystified look.

The sorceress scratched her forehead, a bit reluctant to admit her opinion on the issue. "To be honest...no, it didn't. They remain dormant for the most part, but if a fragment is awakened they're..." she trailed off for a moment, an uncharacteristic look of apprehension on her face. Realising she'd stop talking, Lina's face flushed and she started speaking again. "incredibly powerful. It took the death of one of the Shinzoku to stop just one fragment, so we've only got three more left, and trust me, I doubt Valwin would bother."

Silence descended, the unusually gloomy talk a new experience for Fairy Tail. Noticing this, the sorceress hastened to add "But, luckily for us, it takes a lot for a fragment to wake up. Lei Magnus was one of the world's greatest sorcerers, and his piece only woke up when he was traumatised by war. Rezo's-" she cut herself.

Before anyone could ask why she had stopped a second time, Makarov landed on the table, the Guild-stamp in hand.

"So, where do you want it?" he asked cheerfully, almost like he hadn't chosen to interrupt when he saw the pained look in Lina's eyes.

While Lina was busy deciding where she was willing to have a magic tattoo, someone finally realised something.

"Excuse me, Gourry? I don't think we've seen what sort of magic you have." Lucy asked the swordsman, who was occupying his time giving Lina unwanted advice about where she should put the tattoo.

"Jelly-fish Brain, use magic?" Lina cracked up, laughing hard. She clutched her stomach, tattoo forgotten for the moment. "You need to be able to remember Chaos Words to cast magic, which means you need a memory. Him, memory? AHAHA!" her hand pounded the table, nearly hysterical.

Gourry, for his part, didn't look put out. "I'm just a swordsman, always have been, always will be. Although..." he patted the sword as his belt. "I think this one needs replacing."

Choking back her laughter, Lina pointed out "'just a swordsman'? 'Always have been'? Pfft, if you weren't so over-generous with _my_ sword you'd still have the Sword of Light."

"Your sword? It was my family heirloom!" Gourry protested, surprising everyone. He seemed to be rather passive, most of the time. Except when they were eating, obviously. "What makes it yours?"

"You said I could have it!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

They looked ready to go on for hours, shouting in each other's face. Makarov coughed loudly. When that failed to get their attention, he coughed even louder. When _that _failed, he put two fingers to his mouth, stood right next to them, applied some handy Magic he'd learnt years ago to his vocal cords and lungs, and blew.

When they both had their hearing back, Lina asked the first question "That's not a problem, is it? Cause if Gourry can't come, I ain't joining." She set her hands against her hips, uncompromising.

Before anyone could get carried away, Makarov said "Don't worry, I have the solution, let me deal with it. For now, Gourry, you need a new sword?" he asked, and when he received a nod, he turned to Erza. "Do you have a magic sword you won't need for a while?"

Erza nodded, thinking for a moment of her catalogue of swords. With a surge of magic, she held a sword in one hand. It was currently a long sword, with a hilt long enough that it could be wielded two handed. Noting the hilt of his current, apparently unusable weapon, she had chosen a blade with a simple design. A blue hilt and vaguely wing like guard. A few inches along the blade it briefly widened, where was engraved a triangle was formed by a pyramid of three lesser triangles. She held it out to Gourry, hilt first.

"I found this in the remains of an old temple, in a forest while on a quest. " She told him. "I don't think it has a name, but it never needs sharpening. Take it."

He held the weapon in one hand, giving it an experimental swing. Watching him do so, Erza ran an appraising eye over his arms and form. If she was any judge, he was a master swordsman.

Satisfied, he turned back to her. "Thanks, but I can't just take such a fine sword. " He offered it back to her politely.

"Gourry, stop that and take the damned thing!" Lina shouted at him. "What have I told you about refusing free stuff?"

He shook his head. "No, Lina. Not with this. I can't just _take_ a sword like this. It deserves better." He was firm.

The sorceress gapped at him. "'Deserves'? It's a sword, you idiot!"

Erza had been tapping her chin, watching them argue before she smiled. Natsu and Gray instinctively checked to make sure they weren't accidently fighting and a large number of people in the area backed away.

"No, you're right. You need to earn it." Everyone looked at her curiously, noting the aggressive look in her eyes.

With a flash, two perfectly ordinary swords materialised. One she threw towards Gourry, who caught it easy. The other she held.

Walking to the clear space between the door and the bar, she moved into a fighting stance. Ignoring the Lina's demands for answers, Gourry moved parallel to the Knight of Fairy Tail. They held fast, watching each other. Out of the corner of her mouth, Erza said "Mira, please start the duel."

"DUEL?" the guild shouted, no one entirely sure what was going on, except possibly Makarov. Lina caught on to it fast, and so when Mirajane stood between, backed up and lifted a flag she had mysteriously acquired, she grinned, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted "KICK HER ARSE, GOURRY!"

He grinned, nodding. Erza smirked, a predatory expression on her face. Mirajane dropped the flag, and they were off.

The _clang!_ of steel on steel filled the guild hall. Everyone had come over to watch, and, in imitation of Lina, began to shout their support. Surprisingly, a number were rooting on Gourry.

Both warriors pressed their weapons against each other, pushing with all their might. For a moment, it seemed they were equal in terms of pure strength, but soon Erza found herself giving ground. Slowly, so slow it was doubtful anyone else had noticed, but she could feel it. This was a purely physical fight, but even so, she was supernaturally strong yet his was a unrelenting strength.

They separated, skidding back. Erza was faster, leading the attack with a strong horizontal swipe at Gourry's chest, which he parried, adding his own momentum to her twist in an effort to knock her off balance. His blade sang through the air, narrowly missing her throat when she dodged back. Someone gasped at the lethal moves they were using, but neither noticed.

Off to the side, Lina muttered to the mages around her. "Anyone up for a little...wager?"

They exchanged blows, swords clashing. Both were skilled, but it soon became apparent to Erza and Gourry that he had the upper hand. Erza was a master swordswoman, but she supplemented that with her numerous armours and weapons. Gourry, on the other hand, was in his element. He rarely got to fight properly, since most enemies were vaporised shortly by Lina and they didn't often go near wherever it was that Zangulus spent his time with Martina. This was getting his blood pumping.

She caught his powerful overhead attack, gritting her teeth as they struggled. After a few seconds she broke the stalemate, sliding his blade to the side, and they were back to trading attacks. Erza leapt, avoiding a low strike and responded with her own vertical attack, which was in turned deflected. Landing, she let her momentum speed her some distance away, giving her room to devise a new strategy. Gourry didn't give her the chance, moving forward with shocking speed. Watching, Lina was reminded of the time when Hellmaster had turned him against them. Really, she supposed as she wrote down bets, it was good for him to have spar every now and then. It was therapeutic.

Gourry seemed to be getting better the longer things went on, Erza soon realised. He might have been out of practice, or just getting into it. But his attacks were coming in harder and faster, and without her magic she was starting to have trouble. Still, she was keeping up. She was a master, but so was he. The difference was in terms of dedication. His fighting solely revolved around his swordsmanship, whereas for her it was one part of a wide range. The different weapons, each of her different armours. It made a vital difference here and now, whereas if she'd been fighting with magic she felt certain it would be going her way.

Parrying one particularly powerful attack, Erza admitted to herself she might have underestimated him before. She honestly hadn't except a non-mage to possess such strength.

They separated and squared off again, eyeing each other intently. Both felt the tension rising, and both knew this would be the last attack. Their legs coiled, muscles ready to go. With a sudden lurch they both launched, moving nearly too fast to follow.

_Clang!_ two sounds ran out as one, and they stood, facing away, where the other had been the moment before. Everyone watched, waiting to see what would happen.

_Crrrk!_ Cracks ran from a point mid-lenght. Everyone geared up to cheer, but Lina held a hand up, forestalling them. She eyed Erza's blade, apparently expecting something.

_Thunk!_ Half of Erza's sword fell, cleanly cut at the same point as Gourry's.

The cheers nearly deafened Makarov, sitting perilously in front of the all of onlookers as he was. Lina was cheering most prominently, and flashing a piece of paper in front of the other betters' faces.

Turning, Gourry and Erza shook hands.

"That was fun. Wanna do it again?" Gourry asked cheerfully.

Erza chuckled and nodded. "Sure, it will keep me on my toes." She smirked and added "Besides, next time I'll try it with one of my armours."

"Woo! Who's the man! Gourry's the man!" Lina cheered. Walking up to him, she slapped him on the shoulder. "Good work Gourry! You just got yourself a sword and you won me _money!_" she licked her lips. Turning back to face the crowd, she roared. "Alright, pay up!"

There was a chorus of groans, those who hadn't been involved looked at Lina for an explanation. Smirking, she waved the piece of paper. Written on it were names, with how much they had bet and on what outcome. Some were, to be blunt, very strange. Take, for example, Cana's "One will trip, falling into the bar, breaking the salad-shaker, knocking over any food and starting a fire." And at the top...

"Lina Inverse, 'Gourry, with both weapons damaged and at least one broken'!" Lina shouted, enjoying herself tremendously. Soon, her wallet was bulging with foreign currency.

Unnoticed, someone asked "Wait, did she have any Jewels to pay if she lost?"

No one heard Wakaba.

"Why exactly is your sword in need of replacing?" Lucy asked Gourry when he removed its scabbard from his belt, since his new sword wasn't going to fit in it.

He looked up and tried to remember. "Uh, I think it was the stone golems in those ruins yesterday. It broke on one."

She stared at him, shocked. "You tried to use an ordinary sword to beat a golem made of stone?"

Lina, overhearing, interrupted them. "He didn't try, he did. It broke on about the fifteenth one." She elbowed him. "This idiot has too many muscles, keeps breaking every sword he uses cause it can't withstand how hard he hits."

"COOL!" That came from Natsu, who had been listening as well. "Gourry's so good with swords, they break when he uses them!"

"Why is him breaking them cool?" Lucy yelled at him, to which he just laughed vaguely. "I think I've had enough for one day, I'm going home."

"See ya there, Luce!" Natsu called, followed by Happy's "Aye!" of agrrement.

"STOP BREAKING INTO MY HOUSE!"

Macao was currently desperately searching through his pockets. "Where's my wallet?" he howled in distress. He asked around the room, and was soon lifting chairs and prowling through the rest of the guild. A certain pair of red eyes watched, and planned. By now, everyone else had paid and the back of Lina's left hand bore a red Fairy Tail mark. The older mage was frantically digging his way beneath a pile of books in the library when someone tapped him on the back. Looking up, he bit back a gulp at Lina's mischievous eyes.

"Something wrong?" she asked, eye brow lifted expectantly.

"Hehe, funny you should ask." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "I can't seem to find my wallet." He frowned. "Which is weird. I had it when I was with Romeo, since I bought him lunch before we came." Looking back at Lina, he apologised. "Really sorry about this."

Lina waved it off and said "Nah, don't worry about it.", which caused Gourry, who had been watching from the door with his new sword on his belt, to do a double take. He stepped backwards, than sprinted off somewhere. Lina ignored him. She pretended to stop and think, but it was obvious she already knew what she was about to ask. "Say, since you can't pay, how about we make a deal? Me and Gourry are new here, and we don't have anywhere to stay. How about putting us up for a few days, and showing us around this town?" she grinned up at him.

Before he could answer, Gourry returned, with Natsu in tow. The Dragon Slayer came up to Lina and, ignoring her confused expression, sniffed her. Resisting the urge to smack him, Lina opened her mouth to ask what the _hell _he was doing.

Natsu turned to Gourry and gave him a thumps up. "Yep, she ain't a fake." Gourry sighed, wiping his forehead in relief.

This time, Lina didn't resist her urges. Turning back to Macao, two idiots with smoking skulls face-planted in the floor, she waited for an answer.

Shrugging, he said "Sure. Broke up with my girlfriend last week, so we have room." He grinned. "Romeo'll be happy to meet you, I'm sure."

Lina grinned, triumphant. Pulling Gourry up, she shook him until he was paying attention. "Come on, Jelly-fish, enough playing around with your new pal, we've got a tour guide."

And so, Macao set out to show Magnolia to a short-tempered sorceress and a Jelly-fish Brained Swordsman.

God save the townsfolk.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Do you really think they would use a mysterious artefact without knowing what it does, Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia asked worriedly of her chimera companion. He just _looked_ at her. The princess couldn't help acknowledging his unspoken point. "Okay, do you really think they did it on purpose?"

He thought about that. Having scoured the bandit camp, they had returned the inn they had agreed to meet Lina and Gourry in, mysterious jewel artefact in hand. Inspecting it, he had come to much the same conclusion as Lina – that being it was created by both Holy Magic and Black Magic – but now he was in a position to see something else. It seemed empty, as if it had exhausted part of its stored energy.

In answer to Amelia's question, he said "This is Lina and Gourry we're talking about, they probably turned it on while arguing about something foolish."

She nodded in agreement. "So, how do we figure out what it did to them?" she asked, worried about their friends.

Zelgadis shrugged. "No idea. This thing is Fusion Magic-fuelled, it could do just about anything." As unwilling as he was to admit it, he was stumped. Black Magic was really Lina's forte.

Sitting at their table, stirring their tea, no ideas about what to do, nothing happened. Nothing at all.

"My my, you two taste of wonderfully depressed."

Zelgadis closed his eyes and attempted to pretend he hadn't heard anything. Mazoku were creatures of the non-physical Astral Plane, maybe if you denied their existence hard enough they'd disapp-

"Ah, now you're just being rude, Zelgadis."

"Hello Mr. Xellos." Amelia was as polite as always. "How are you?"

The Trickster Priest dropped into a chair Zelgadis was certain hadn't been there moments before. "I'm doing quite well, Princess." He answered, taking a sip of tea. Zelgadis _knew_ there hadn't been a third cup on the table. "You and Mr. Zelgadis here seem to be in a bit of a pickle, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I can be of assistance?" he said teasingly.

The chimera scowled at him. "What do you want, Xellos? Or, wait" he held up a hand to forestall Xellos' reply. "don't tell, you're the one to blame for this?"

Xellos put on a hurt expression. "Me, what could _I _do?"

Zelgadis snorted, taking a sip of tea. He didn't dignify that with a further response. Seeing he wasn't about to say anything, Xellos turned to Amelia. "Would you happen to be in a more hospitable mood, Princess?"

"You can't exactly blame Mr. Zelgadis for not trusting you, Mr. Xellos." She pointed out. "But can you help us? Miss. Lina and Mr. Gourry seem to have disappeared. Mr. Zelgadis thinks it has something to do with the jewel."

Looking at the jewel, Xellos didn't even bother inspecting it for long. "Yes." He said. "That's exactly what caused it. They cut themselves on the same tip of it, activating one of its abilities. It sent them to another world." He smiled, not seeming to notice the stunned expressions on Zelgadis and Amelia's faces.

Choking on his tea, Zelgadis finally stuttered "W-what did you say?" to say he was surprised would be a vast understatement. Xellos _never_ just explained something right off the bat. You had to go through all sorts of set ups and on wild goose chases until you finally have it worked out and then he goes 'Oh, you meant _that_! I thought you meant something else entirely, I could have told all about it.'

The Mazoku's smile never faltered. "The jewel was created in the Koma War, by a rogue Golden Dragon and a high-ranked Mazoku. It was intended to pierce the fabric of reality, to reach distant places. Apparently the Golden Dragon intended to use it to seek for any remnants of Ceipheed in the Sea of Chaos." His tone implied how stupid he thought that was. "But, it didn't work. Or it did, and he never came back."

Amelia was speechless. "Why are you telling us this, Mr. Xellos?"

He 'tut'ted at her. "Now, Princess, you should know by now. That's a secret." The mortals both sighed, Zelgadis muttering "I knew it" under his breath. "So, would you like to know how to follow them?" That got their attention.

Zelgadis wasn't quite willing to believe it. "You'd just tell us? Like that, no hints, no wild goose chases? I don't believe it. Not that I expect an answer, but what are you up?" he glared at Xellos suspiciously over the rim of his tea cup.

"Ah, your distrust wounds me!" Xellos declared, standing up. "Very well, but before I go, I should warn you of something." He reached down, picking up the jewel "The Eye of the Gate, as it is called, can be activated one of two ways. Either two people apply their blood to the same spot, spending both or" he tossed the jewel spinning into the air and caught it on its way down. "A Mazoku activates it, spending everything within fifteen feet to another world." He smiled widely at them. "Like this."

Eyes widening as light began to flow from the 'Eye of the Gate', Zelgadis shot to his feet, one hand on pulling his sword out, the other outstretched as Chaos Words forming on his lips. Amelia was only a second behind him, not having the chimera's acute paranoia.

"Xell-" Zelgadis' snarl was cut off by a flash of eye hurting light. When it faded, Zelgadis, Amelia, the table and their chairs, not to mention a chunk of the floor, were gone. As was Xellos, but as he wandered away, having teleported before the rest of the inn could see that he remained, he couldn't help by chuckle to himself.

Really, things were going well.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

As Lina and Gourry took a tour of Magnolia, in a village far distant of the town harbouring Fairy Tail, a man begged for his life.

"I don't know where they came from, man! We just found them, seriously! Please dude, stop!" a punk cried.

These pleas fell on deaf ears. "You knew how to use them, someone must have told you. Tell me the truth, or I'll do far worst to you then I did to your friends." A voice from the shadows said, relentless. His features were hidden by the darkness of the alley, but his right arm extended. It hovered in front of the punk's forehead, the ambient glow of magic shining from his palm.

"Geeze, I leave ya alone fur five minutes an' you go off huntin' yeself without waitin' fur me." A heavily accented voice said from another part of alley. Not looking back, the shadowed figure didn't move or say anything as the source of the new voice strolled up to him. "Come on mate, leave me some stuff ta do. Ya know the mental side o' business is my job." This new person said, entirely too relaxed in a dark alley at night time, littered with the beaten, burnt, slashed bodies of a gang.

Kneeling down, he reached past the glowing hand to press forefinger and middle finger against the punk's forehead. The punk noticed, somewhere in the back of his mind where he was pretending this wasn't happening, that his second tormentor was dressed casually, and the hand on his head was covered by fingerless gloves. Then he felt his mind being torn apart.

Coming to moments later, the punk found his muscles unable to work. He was terribly confused. They had been about to jump a tourist, and now his body felt broken and everything hurt. Especially his wrists, for some reason. Dimly, before his body gave out, he saw two figures walking away and speaking.

"Ain't nothing here mate, same story as ever. We gonna keep lookin'?"

"Of course. We will find him. In his words, 'nothing and no one, born of this world or any other, will stop me.'"

"Ya mean 'us', don't ya, mate? Ya did that thing where ya said 'me' instead of 'us'. Not used to havin' a partner? Poor little loner. Good thing ya got me fur a mate now. An' the ponse."

"...shut up."

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Settling onto one of the spare beds Macao had brought out for them, Lina Inverse, born of any other world, sneezed.

"Hm, someone must be talking about me. Probably my amazing power." She muttered to herself, before adding, darkly, "Better not be any demons or nothing."

"Demons?" inquired Macao's confused voice from the door. Looking over, she saw him carrying the blankets and pillows he'd mentioned he needed to find. He cocked an eyebrow at her questioningly. "I don't need to check my insurance policy, do I?" he asked jokingly. Mostly.

She waved his concern away, getting up to let him put his burden down. "Nah. We left them back in our world." Before leaving the guild, she had been sure to check a map, and confirmed that yes, they were in another world. She had felt more certain after a while even without it. This world felt different to her magic. She couldn't quite pin-point it, but she could vaguely sense something when she had used her spells. A concentration, a source, something like that. Until she had a clearer picture of the origins of magic in this world, Lina couldn't do much, but now she had an idea.

If only Zel was here! She bemoaned internally.

"You've got a nice kid there, by the way." She said, for something to say.

The older man grinned at her. "Yep, Romeo's great. He's my pride and joy. Out back right now, watching Gourry practice with his new sword." His grin lessened a tad. "Had a bit of trouble when me and my wife split, but I think that's mostly over. Been goods news since, he wants to be a mage." He said the last with pride.

Lina smiled as well. "Can't fault him for that, magic is great. So, what's your magic? As I've heard it, you've all got different magic." She asked, curious. The magic of Earthland, a name she had forced herself not to comment on, was fascinating in its diversity.

Lifting a hand, purple fire appeared. It curled up and around his arm. With a gesture the tail of fire reached over to Lina, circling her. "Purple Flare." Macao said proudly. He scratched the back of his head with a not on fire hand. "It's not too impressive, not like the stuff Natsu and his group have. There's a number of other users." He laughed. "No fancy 'Lost Magic' for me."

Lina looked away from admiring the fire, captivated by it. Her mind was turning, pondering how it worked. As...short sighted as she could be when it came to things like wealth and food, Lina was a dedicated sorceress. "Don't sell yourself short. The world can't all be secret, super magic. Without wide spread magic, magic that has many users, it can't grow." He looked at her, surprised at the serious tone. "Each person who uses a type of magic will see it differently, and create different applications with it. Eventually, this knowledge will be gathered and taught to new users, who will continue to build on it." She sat back on the bed, watching the flames follow her.

He whistled, impressed. "Sounds like you've given it some thought."

The sorceress flashed him a confident grin. "Of course. In my world, we don't have nearly the variety. Yet, there's a world's worth of application for each kind."

"So, can anyone use magic in your world?" Macao had to admit he was curious. "You said before that it requires memorising Chaos Words, but if you can eventually use magic without them, or with less, it can't just be that can it?"

She nodded. "Well, close. There is a certain talent, but we use _mana_, a form of energy. The main thing is that we humans don't have the natural ability to manipulate, so it we have to call upon another entity who can. Although its not totally understood, since conceptual things of a spiritual nature and the natural world itself can be 'called upon'."

"Oh, so your magic comes from someone else?"

"No, it's still mine. I direct the power, I control the spell's intent." She scowled at the thought it wasn't _her_ power. "There are other creatures in the world, such as the demonic Mazoku, who don't need to call upon something else to direct mana, largely thanks to the fact they're directly born of the source of their magic. But to directly answer your question, it's largely a matter of memorising the Chaos Words and Power Words, the spell's name. Of course, at _my_ level I need only mentally invoke Chaos Words for a full power spell." She explained. Realisation, followed by a thoughtful frown crossed her face. "Dammit, why didn't I see it before? That's why this world feels so strange."

When she appeared absorbed in thought, without intending to continue, Macao coughed and asked "Didn't see what?"

"Huh?" she looked at him, confused, before her brain caught up and she processed his question. "I just realised something important. You're all manipulating mana directly, which should be impossible for humans. Only Mazoku, who were directly born from the essence of Ruby Eye himself, and the Shinzoku should be the only ones able to do that. Yet here you all are. Which begs the question; is it you, or this world, that makes it possible?"

"Sounds complicated." Macao remarked. "What's the difference?"

"Well, if it's this world that makes it possible, it means I might be able to learn how to use it. Oh hell, where's that chimera when you need him? Bet he and Amelia are lost without me." She said, a tad arrogantly, completely ignoring the fact Zelgadis spent most of his time travelling around on his own and Amelia had a life independent of her as well. "Well, at least I know what my plans are now."

At his questioning glance, she smirked cheekily explained. "I'm gonna find out what makes this place tick, and I'm gonna make it mine." Macao took a step a back, a disbelieving expression on his face. Now her face was all innocence. "Sounds fun, want to come? We're gonna need someone who can show us around." She offered a hand.

Starring at her in shock, he suddenly threw back his head and laughed, long and loud. Lina wasn't the least bit annoyed, however. When it came to an end, he reached down and shook it. "Sure, the youngsters in the guild have been doing all the interesting stuff recently. Gotta keep my reputation with Romeo up."

They were interrupted in this dramatic moment by the sound of a crash and Gourry shouting "Sorry!" Both peeked out the spare bedroom door, starring through open front door at the end of the hall. A dust cloud settled, revealing an embarrassed Gourry, a gaping Romeo and a fallen tree with a suspiciously clean break. Lina's forehead developed a vein of anger and her eye twitched.

"GOURRY, YOU JELLY-FISH BRAINED IDIOT!"

This time, Macao's laughter didn't annoy her because Lina was too busy setting a bad example to Romeo, by pummelling her partner.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Please wake up! I can't hold you for much longer!"

Stirring from his slumber, Zelgadis had the odd sense of...hanging. He was hanging from something. Opening his eyes, he was treated to the stunning vista of a mountain range, blues and greys that melted together into view of breathtaking beauty, above the brilliant orange of twilight. There was one problem, he noted.

It was upside down.

"Please wake up!" Amelia's voice cut into his thoughts, a note of desperation in it. "My arms are tired~!"

"A-Amelia?" it was then that he realised the world wasn't upside down, he was. And someone was holding his ankles. His mind was razor sharp, his intellect would be considered among the greatest in the world were he not solely focused on reclaiming his human form. So, he worked it out pretty fast.

"Mr. Zelgadis, you're awake?" she asked, hope in her voice. "Thank goodness!"

"Uh, yeah, what's happening?" he had to admit, he was rather confused.

Her voice was growing strained. "Mr. Xellos made the jewel light up, and we appeared up in the air and you were asleep and I didn't want you to get hurt so I-" he dimly felt her hands slipping.

"_Levitation_." Zelgadis lifted up, alongside Amelia. Now, he could see how high they were. A fall from this height would hurt or possibly kill even him. Glancing at Amelia, he saw how tired she was. _How long have I been out?_ He wondered. His arms wrapped around her waist. "Let me take over." She went red, unnoticed by the world-wary chimera, but let her spell dissipate.

They picked up speed, Zelgadis controlling the rate of descent. Inspecting the lay of the land, he spotted a rocky outcropping, the top of a cliff. Landing there, he released Amelia.

"Where do you think we are, Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia asked, looking over the tree-laden mountain range.

He shrugged. "Not sure, this could be any of a dozen places. Our first priority should be to find shelter and civilisation." Zelgadis began to go through his pockets and pouches, mentally cataloguing everything he had on him. Advising Amelia to do the same, they discovered neither was exactly prepared for being in the middle of the wilderness. But both were experienced travellers, and Zelgadis was always ready to leave civilisation in search of his cure. He suspected Amelia could survive through sheer optimistic force of will. "Damned Xellos. Why the hell would he do this?" Zelgadis cursed vehemently.

Amelia was wondering that herself, but in less offensive words. "Well, we're here now Mr. Zelgadis, we might as well make the best of it. At least we can find Ms. Lina and Mr. Gourry." She said brightly, giving him a cheerful thumps up.

The chimera sighed, staring at her smiling visage, and shook in his head. "At least one of us can look on the bright side here. Judging by the sky, it'll be dark soon." He told Amelia. "I'm going to see if I can see any civilisation from higher." Amelia had, admittedly, been too busy trying to grab him to take a good look around and the mountains provided obstacles. With a few muttered words, he began to rise into the air.

As he rose, something caught his eye. Looking through the trees, Zelgadis picked up a flash of stone grey in one of the fading rays of light. Pausing, he stared at the rough area he had seen it. One of the advantages of raiding ruins and tombs was a familiarity with the colours really old stone structures could be. Yelling to Amelia that he'd found something, he sped toward it. Curiosity had always been one of his faults, he had to admit. Usually it was kept tightly controlled so he could focus, but now it guided him to something he felt certain would be of use. At the very least, the architecture and any writing could give him a general idea of where they might be. Of course, if Xellos hadn't been lying they were in another world and it would be pointless. But at least it would act as shelter.

He pulled up short, however, when he began to make out a vague sound. Closing his eyes, he focused on it for a moment. Listening, he began to discern a pattern after a minute. Chanting, he realised. Someone, or more likely more from the sound of it, were chanting. The purpose he couldn't guess, but while he couldn't make out individual words in general it sounded like his own tongue. Opening his eyes, he realised it was growing darker by the minute and he had been paused here for some time. A quick survey to mark the location he had seen, Zelgadis turned back to Amelia. She had been standing where he had left her, watching him and making a valiant effort to resist charging after him.

"There's people by some ruins over there." He informed her quietly. "They're chanting, so this might be something religious or magical. Either way, we need shelter and to find out where we are."

Amelia nodded in agreement. "Right!" she declared, equally quiet, much to Zelgadis' complete of surprise. Only a member of the Seyruun royal family could pack so much enthuasim, goodwill and sheer loudness into a whisper. "We shall introduce ourselves!" the princess made to move towards where he had indicated earlier, only to find a hand holder her shirt.

"Maybe we should take a more...subtle approach. We don't know if they're hostile or not." He reasoned. "We need to be cautious for now." When Amelia nodded in consent a moment later, Zelgadis couldn't help but be thankful for her ability to learn. He remembered when she had simply charged forward, shouting about 'Justice!'. Now, she...well, she still did that, but now she was able to wait and be careful before she did so.

Moving as quietly as possible, they floated to the forest floor. Letting their magic fade, the duo began their approach. Going slowly, but as silently as possible, they made their way towards the ruins. Closer and closer, they began to hear the faint, indistinct mumble of many voices speaking together. Soon, they could see faint points of light through the foliage and could make out a word or two.

_They're speaking our language, at least_ Zelgadis thought, though he couldn't for a life of him work out why different universes would share a language. Of course, the world where Darkstar seemed to speak their language too, if Almayce and his former-cohorts bad been any indication. Brushing it off as irreverent for now, Zelgadis focused on the task at hand.

It wasn't long before they could make out the words. Listening, Zelgadis was less then reassured. In his experience with cults, and he had a _lot_, people who talked about true rulers of the world and such foolishness tended to worship less-than-wholesome beings.

"-strengthen us with this offering, we give to you a sign of our faith! Hear us, o' true lords of the world!"

Peeking through bushes, they finally caught sight of the chanters. Standing in a circle, candles between, close to two dozen people in stereotypically black robes and masks chanted away, hands up raised. They stood on what appeared to be the rectangular remains of an ancient stone building, the bases of broken columns lining it. At the far end it dropped, stairs leading down. In the middle of the chanting ring stood a altar.

"Let the blood of this innocent feed your growing hunger, so your darkness might be seen across the world once again!"

Amelia bit back a gasp, which Zelgadis first attributed to the words, but she directed his attention to what she had seen. Two more robed figures were approaching from the other side of the clearing which held the ruins. The reason for Amelia's reaction became apparent – they held the limp form between them. Zelgadis couldn't tell the captive's gender from this distance, or much else. But he'd see enough insane, Mazoku worshipping cults to work what was going to happen.

Unfortunately, so did Amelia.

Looking back at her to tell her the plan that was forming in his mind, he stared for a moment, mentally outlining where she had been crouching. His head fell into his hands, letting out a tremendous sigh. Really, some things never changed.

"Halt, villains!" Somehow, in that short time, she had managed to make her way to the top of the tallest broken pillar. "In the name of Justice, surrender yourselves to us, the furious protectors of all that is Good!"

There was an appalled silence, shared by Zelgadis and the cultists alike as they stared at her, standing there yelling and pointing in a manner which was able to convey her sense of righteous anger. Zelgadis had a feeling that if Lina had been here she'd have ruined their remaining element of surprise by shouting angrily. Luckily, he possessed more self-control.

Their chanting forgotten, one of the cultists, presumably the leader, pointed in return. "Oi, who the hell are you? Can't you see we're in the middle of something here!"

"Yeah, talk about rude." Another cultist shouted.

"Didn't your father ever teach you any manners?" A third asked.

Amelia, caught off guard by the targets of her Justice speech, gaped and stammered. "O-of course he did!"

"Doesn't seem like it, Little Miss. Interrupt-A-Very-Important-Religious-Ritual!"

Her voice took on an offended tone. "How dare you? Daddy taught me very good manners and to be polite."

Watching from the bushes, Zelgadis stared, a large sweat-drop forming. _What is going on? Only Amelia could get into an argument about manners with an evil cult._ He thought, winching as the princess engaged in an shouting match about the quality of her father's raising of her.

Face red, Amelia finally seemed to catch something important, seeing the two cultists with the captive – a girl – trying to sneak off. "Hold it! Don't talk to me about manners when you're about to sacrifice an innocent young girl for your evil purposes."

That one seemed to pause the cultists for a moment, but before long the first one to speak rejoined with "Oh yeah? How do you know she's innocent? She might be an evil witch who eats babies and we're executing her in an ancient, time honoured way."

"Well..." Amelia considered this, before she thought back to their chant. "You said she was innocent! I heard you chanting about it!"

"Oh, eavesdropping as well? Aren't we a rude young lady?"

Zelgadis felt his eye twitch as they got into another argument about manners. At least Amelia was distracting them.

Eventually, however, one of the cultists, apparently one who was more observant then the rest, remembered Amelia's opening words. "'us'? Did you say 'us' before? As in, more than just you?"

The look that came over Amelia's face was best described as a combination of surprise, remembrance and embarrassment. "A-ah, w-well...no?" she tried to lie.

"LIAR!" the entire cult shouted at her, to which she seemed embarrassed.

"Sorry, I'm not good at lying." She apologised.

"Don't worry Amelia, you gave me enough time." Zelgadis' voice came from behind them, followed soon by the chimera himself. He strode from the shadows, completely at ease.

"Hey, another one!"

"Who the hell are you?"

"What is it?"

The last was shouted, as one of the cultists noticed his peculiar appearance. His hood and the mask he wore over his lower face weren't on at the moment, letting the world see his unique face.

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia was, to be blunt, confused. "Enough time for what?"

His grin was a tad feral. In answer, he lifted his hands and said "We got to hear your little chant, here's one of mine in return."

"_Hear me, spirits of the earth. Honour your vow in this hour of need and do my bidding._"A glowing circle appeared around the cultists as he chanted. One or two noticed the circle was lined with odd pieces of wire, embedded in the stone. A few fragments of the old stone itself began to lift into the air, pushed by arcane energies.

One even said "Pfft, our chant was way cooler."

"_Explosion Array._"

A tremendous blast, a perfectly circular cloud of dust and shattered stone, shot upwards into the air. Cultists were sent flying, and Amelia and the two cultists with the girl stared as it rained black robed figures. They been outside the spell radius, but the shockwave nearly made them drop their captive.

"Heh." When the dust cleared, Zelgadis walked through the fallen cultists, kicking the one he was fairly certain had been the one to insult his chant. Well, it was probably that one. Close enough, it was a cultist anyway.

"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia reprimanded, seeing him kick an enemy while they were down when she Levitated to the ground to join him.

"Ahh!" the two cultists dropped their captive, finally catching up on events. They made to run away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Zelgadis' eyes narrowed at them. He lifted a hand, arm stretched towards them as they gibbered in terror, trying to flee. "_Scatter Bird._" Dozens of swirling balls of energy streamed from his hand, slamming into the pair. They cried in shock as electrical charges filled their bodies. The spell was significantly less than lethal, but it should be enough to deal with ordinary humans.

Going to the unconscious girl, Zelgadis left Amelia to check on her.

"She's only unconscious, she'll be fine with some rest." The White Magic user reported. Something seemed to be bothering her, Zelgadis noticed.

"Amelia, is something wrong?" he asked bluntly.

Her face went red and she pressed her pointer fingers together, apparently embarrassed. "W-well, it's just..."

"Just what?" he quirked an eyebrow at her, slightly worried.

She pointed towards the beaten cultists, comic tears running down her cheeks. "~I didn't do anything~!"

Zelgadis' face fell. "R-really? That's it?"

"But I wanted to help bring these evildoers to Justice!" she said forcefully.

"Well..." the Shamanist sought something to say. "You distracted them so I could do my plan. That's helping, right?"

"I suppose so." Amelia's voice was a bit disappointed, but she got his point. "By the way, how'd you do that? I didn't think Explosion Array was that large and powerful. Why didn't you use Mega Brand?"

"Mega Brand might have hit the captive too. But yeah, it's usually not that powerful." He answered. "But I found that using parts of my own body, in this case my hair, to form the circle and using the full chant despite the fact I don't need it lets me add a lot of power to it. You know how using something of yourself as a reagent enhances a lot of spells, same thing here. But not many people have hair they can stick into stone." He added ruefully, as he often did when his changed body came in use.

Their discourse was interrupted by one of the cultists, the leader with his more elaborate robes, struggling to his feet. "Y-you damn intruders! I'll kill you for this! **Fire Bang: Ball Barrage!**" a crimson rune sprung into existence before his hands, from which a number of large flaming orbs the size of heads erupted.

Reacting with admirable speed, Zelgadis had the girl under one arm and the other pushing Amelia away in an instant. They moved just fast enough, the balls of fire obliterating the area they had been in. Howling in frustration, the cultist mage launched the same attack. The chimera saw that the fire balls exploded into unnaturally spherical explosions where they hit.

"Get behind the columns!" Zelgadis called to Amelia over the sound of explosions, dodging the perilous attacks as they did so. Leaping behind one, he absently noted that it was the same one Amelia had been standing on earlier.

"You can't hide from me, you bastard monster! **Barrage! Barrage! Barrage!**" the cultist was screaming, throwing attacks haphazardly at where he thought they might be among the fallen pillars.

_Monster..._Zelgadis' eyes narrowed and his thought grew dark. Rearranging the girl over his shoulder so he had at least one hand free, he leapt from cover.

"_Balus Wall._" A faint red haze appeared around him.

"Got you!" the cultist roared eagerly. "**Fire Bang: Bomb Ball!**" the rune appeared again, larger this time. Zelgadis knew now wasn't the time to question this strange magic, but he couldn't help but feel curious. A ball of fire, larger than any previously. "Die!" the sphere of flaming death shot towards them. Zelgadis tried to ignore it, chanting under his breath. If anyone has ever tried to calmly ignore a massive ball of fire which is likely to explode if the 'fire' part doesn't kill you should know how difficult that can be.

Slamming into the red shield of _Balus Wall_, the fire ball suddenly shuddered. It's course altered, missing Zelgadis by a hair, it flew down the stairs behind him and destroyed the ancient stone door at the bottom. The cultist gapped, shocked at his spell's deflection.

"My turn. _Dig Volt!_" a bolt of lightning launched from his free hand, and he noted with some satisfaction its perfect hit. To his annoyance, the cultist didn't go down.

"Argh, curse you! You think your puny magic can defeat the power Lord Blacklust has bestowed upon us? AHAHA! I'll kill you!" He lifted his hands, preparing to cast another spell. Part of Zelgadis, the part which observed the world clinically, which had been born through his years of constant searching for a cure, noted the peculiar black and white bracelet on one of the cultist's arms, almost glowing with sinister light.

"_Visfan Rank!_" Leaping from her hiding spot behind a piled pair of unconscious cultists, Amelia rammed a glowing fist into the mage's stomach. "Taste the strength of Justice!" she declared loudly, giving Zelgadis a thumps up as the mage collapsed behind her.

Staring at her, eye twitching, Zelgadis managed a "Good work." Before he caught sight of mage looming behind her, once again awake. "Amelia! Behind you!" he shouted desperately as another flaming rune, this one far larger than any other, came into being behind.

"Huh?" Turning curiously, Amelia stared at the baleful rune for a moment. Her mouth dropped open, looking at the mage. His face was a hideous mask of rage and hate, drooling madly.

"**Fire Bang: Bomb Ball!**" the orb spawned, right in front of her.

"Amelia!" Zelgadis knew he wouldn't be able to get close enough to help, knew he couldn't move faster, but the sense of fear gripping him said otherwise.

But Amelia had been in more than enough fights in her travels with them, and she acted instantly. "_Vas Grood!_" though only small, the protective disk formed in front of her. It caught the deadly ball of flames, and where most would simply be destroyed by the power of the fire spell, Amelia wasn't an expert in White Magic for nothing. It held, long enough to cause the ball to detonate. Crying out, Amelia was sent flying back towards. Zelgadis saw her coming, straight at him, but was helpless to do more then try and catch her. The three of them – chimera, princess, sacrifice – went flying, tumbling down the stairs.

Growling, Zelgadis stared at the top of the stairs from his position beneath Amelia and the girl. Looking through the destroyed entrance, he saw that it lead downwards, into darkness.

Mad cackling came from above them, the cultist mage appearing. In the darkness, Zelgadis could have sworn his eyes had become pitch black. "This time, you won't survive! AHAHAHAHA!" he howled, licking his lips disgustingly. His skinny arms shot out, a magic rune flaring up again. Something drew Zelgadis' eye to the jewellery, and he saw with shock it had...grown? There was no other word for it, and the sinister glow was definitely there. Now it covered most of the cultist's forearm and hand.

"**Fire Bang: Big Bomb Blast!**"

Seeing the sheer size of the fire ball hovering above them, Zelgadis wrapped one arm around the now unconscious Amelia – the thought that it was his rock hard body she had hit head first entering his head guiltily – and did the first thing that came to his mind.

"_Ray Wing!_" he kicked off awkwardly, holding to his passengers tightly as they sped into the dark tunnel. A tremendous force and heat hit them a moment later, and Zelgadis nearly lost control of the spell. It propelled them, deeper and deeper, faster and faster, the overwhelming force of the spell funnelled by the tight passage way.

A shockwave rocking the surface and deeps, the stone of the ruins cracking and melting, they were sent careening into the darkness, the night sky hidden by earth and rock. Roaring with insane laughter, the cultist didn't even notice when his former bracelet began to absorb his flesh and creep up his arm. He didn't even notice when chains of black lightning connected his to the hidden black and white bracelets, daggers and knives of the rest of the cult. He alone was spared agonising as he was devoured, too insane to notice or even care if he had.

Some place, far distant, an sinister smile graced the features of the architect of this act of evil. Another of his toys had reached the next stage. Good.

Everything was going as planned.

And nothing and no one, born of this world or any other, would stop him.

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Here we are, at the other end. Wasn't that fun? Hope you enjoy reading it as I did writing it. More, in fact.

Hmm, in the process of writing that sentence I somehow nearly deleted the whole chapter...

Ah well, moving on!

Please review, they feed my blimp sized ego. I want it try getting to the size of the moon eventually.


	4. Chapter 4

Changed user name from "Lord of Change" to my more... traditional, I suppose, user name. No more changes now!

Here it is, Chapter 4! Took a little longer this time, which is probably how long it might take from now on. But still here it is! Enjoy! Give many to InuOtaku911 for Beta'ing this chapter too.

Oh yes, and a brief smattering of info I'm gonna put before every chapter now:

_Slayers Magic_

**Fairy Tail Magic**

'_Thoughts.'_

"Talking."

"This. Is. _Emphasis._"

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

"So, we just pick one of the requests, tell someone-"

"Makarov or Mirajane."

"Right, one of them, then we just...head off and do it?"

Standing in front of the job request board, Lina looked up and down as she discussed it with Macao. Reading the descriptions, she kept looking as she questioned the older mage.

"That's right. Make sure to take the poster off, so no one else tries to do the same one." Macao answered. Standing behind them, Gourry had an expression of acute boredom. He was fine with Lina making the decisions about where they went and what they did, but this was boring. He perked up when Erza entered. Shooting Lina a glance, he tapped her on the shoulder, muttered he was going to ask Erza if she wanted to spar and, when Lina absently waved her hand, walked off.

Watching this, Macao couldn't help but ask "How long have you two been together?"

Her face flushed. "Er, w-what do you mean by...'t-together'?" she stuttered, looking harder at the request board. Macao worried she might break it with the intensity of her stare.

He chuckled, amused, and said "Partners, I mean, travelling together. You seem to understand each other better then even most teams around here."

"Oh." Lina breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Macao's amusement to the best of her ability. If she hit him, she'd probably have to explain why and she'd rather not, in this case. "Well, it's been a couple years now. Been travelling the whole time, don't think more than a couple days have gone by without us being together, actually." The only time she could really remember had been when Hellmaster had...no, she shook the memories from her head. That was one time of her life she could do without remembering.

Macao made an impressed sound. "Takes a lot to spend all that time with one person, constantly. Not many people can stand that. In fact, most of the people I know who live like that are married." He said it casually, offhanded. Turning slightly to give the impression he was looking at something else, he watched her reaction out of the corner of his eye. Her face went as red as her hair and her usual composure melted, eyes wide. "I'm just going to be at the bar, give me a shout if you find a job you want to take." Clapping her on the shoulder, he walked away grinning.

Unseen by him, Lina glared daggers at his back. It didn't take long for her to work out he'd said those things on purpose to see her reaction. Grumbling about prying old people and stupid Jelly-Fish, she went back to inspecting the board.

"Good morning, Macao." Mirajane greeted him cheerfully, sliding a plate in front of him. "The usual."

"Ah, thanks Mira." He began to dig at his food, eating away happily. There was no way his house had enough food for Lina and Gourry, so it had been agreed they'd eat at the guild.

"So, you're taking on those two?" she asked a moment later. "Had any problems so far?"

Swallowing his current mouth full, he said "Nah, 's all going well. Romeo was having a hell of a time with Gourry though. Now he wants to be a mage and a swordsman. He never did like old Mrs. Jibson next door." He muttered the last part under his breath. "Or that tree of hers."

As they talked, the sound of clashing swords could be heard through the door leading to the rear of the guild. A few curious mages had gone to look and were currently cheering on the fight. Not Gourry or Erza, just cheering on general principle.

"Maybe Romeo will ask Erza to teach him magic." Mirajane mused, giggling when Macao started to choke on his food. Patting him on the back as he tried to avoid suffocation, the "Demon" smiled away like she hadn't caused it.

"Please don't say things like. You'll give me nightmares." He begged, shuddering. Mirajane couldn't hold back laughter at the comic look of horror on his face.

"Speaking of Erza, she seems to having fun back there. It's been a while since she's had someone on her level with swords." She remarked, then turning a sly grin on Macao. "And speaking of her new sparring partner, what was it you said that had _his_ partner going red back there? It certainly didn't look like anger to me." She teased.

"Ahaha!" Macao laughed, quietening down when Lina sent a glare at him, some sixth sense alerting her to the fact she might be the butt of a joke. Continuing in a significantly lower voice, he said "Well, I think the little redhead there has _it _for Gourry. She knows it too, even if she won't admit it." Macao knew Mirajane would eat this sort of thing up.

Mirajane giggled, glancing at Lina. Quick as a wink the sorceress turned, looking directly at them again. Yet somehow, Mirajane was just smiling, and waved at her in greeting, no trace of giggles left. Lina scrutinised them for a moment longer, then, apparently concluding there was nothing going on, gave an awkward wave, and returned to inspecting the jobs.

At Macao's impressed expression, the S-Class mage said "I've had a lot of practise." Shaking his head and sighing, further conversation was interrupted by a gloved hand slapping a piece of paper onto the bar.

Taking a seat next to Macao, Lina said "This one look good. Protecting a...'lacrima' developer from a thief in a nearby town." Looking over the posters, Macao nodded in approval. Whether Lina had checked a map or by pure luck, both places were close. Seeing his agreement, the sorceress added, in a falsely casual way, "Since we'll be in the area, I heard Pinky and his lot mention a restaurant in a town nearby, 8 Island I think it was. We can swing by while we're there. So Gourry and I can try some more local cuisine."

Mirajane and Macao looked at her for a moment, not at all fooled, and Macao opened his mouth to say something when-

"Hey, Lina, did you find a job near that restaurant?" Gourry, covered in a fresh layer of sweat, asked cheerfully. "They said it was great, I really wanna try."

"Jelly-fish brain!" she whopped him, and then turned back to Macao with an embarrassed expression, laughing nervously. "I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Confused, the swordsman rubbed the spot Lina had hit him and said "Really? We were talking about it with Happy and Natsu before, remember? You said you'd find some jobs near there so we could-"

"SHUT IT!" she grabbed his shoulders, shaking him fiercely. "Why can't you ever know when to shut up?"

Apparently deciding that violence before breakfast was unneeded, Mirajane appeared with several plates of bacon, eggs, fish, toast and various other forms of breakfast food. In a move that showed a surprising understanding of the pair, no plates were the same distance from one as the other. In fact, if one cared to observe they would note that each had within reach the exact same food as the other. The likelihood of them fighting over something was therefore far lower than usual. Or so you'd expect.

"Hey, that was my bacon!" Gourry cried out, about a minute later, when Lina began to steal said pork-based product from his side. "Don't take mine because you've eaten all of yours."

Sadly, both had began their meal on whichever food choice narrowly won out as their favourite, meaning that when they finished they saw a plate of the same still on the table.

"It's your fault for not eating it!" Lina screeched at him before inhaling his bacon. And thus, a duel of epic breakfast eatery began! Mirajane and Macao looked on in amusement, finding a new source of entertainment in the duo's morning breakfast conflict. It was like a very small, very focused war, without the civility and morals. It was becoming apparent that Lina was a dirty fighter, judging by how she was using that fork. The Fairy Tail mages watching winced at the sound of Lina's deadly cutlery in action.

"Well, at least we don't have to wait for Natsu and Gray to arrive before things get exciting." Macao remarked from his bar seat, watching the table the other-worldly pair occupied shake under the force of their battle. Picking up the poster, he read it over. He'd talk to Master Makarov last night, who had visited his home late that evening. The Guild Master had been relieved that they had managed to gain an experienced member of the guild to go with them. It was obvious Lina was not the sort to do missions that were less than interesting, but Macao at least would be around to make sure things hadn't got out of hand. The older mage would be able to watch them and tell Makarov more about the pair as well. It went without saying that Makarov was joyful about the fact Lina's apparently destructive magic would not be used in conjunction Natsu, not to mention the rest of that team.

The job was a pretty good choice, and essentially what Lina had described. It required more subtly then most missions, as well as a quick response. A thief had attempted to steal a number of lacrima, but not been able to take all of it and the owner believed the thief would come back. A time-stamp on the lower corner showed it had come in only this morning. The price was high, thanks to speed with which mages were needed.

Waiting patiently for the pair to finish their breakfast, Macao took another request from the board. He had spotted it earlier, and it was in the area. Simple enough: get rid of a few monsters in a forest that were causing a bit of trouble. Nothing major. It was close enough to the other one that they could be there when it was taken care of.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, their vigorous meal digesting and a truce having been declared until the next feeding time, Lina and Gourry called out to Macao. The older man finished his conversation with Wakaba and joined them.

"These look good." He said straight off. "I picked up this one as well, in the general area and you won't need to hold back." He showed them the second poster.

Lina grinned when she read it. "Money for beating up monsters, I love this place more every day."

"It's only the second day." Gourry pointed out, to which she shot him a venomous glare.

"Well, I like it more than I did yesterday, so there!" displaying her full mental maturity, Lina made a face at him when she replied.

Coughing to regain their attention, Macao went on. "The thief one is urgent, so we need to head out as soon as possible. But-!" he said quickly as Lina started to stand, lifting a hand to pause her. "We need to wait for Master Makarov. He should arrive before the train we need to catch gets in."

"What for?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I had to find the stuff for Gourry." Lina nearly leapt in surprise, if there hadn't been a table over her legs. Rubbing her knees furiously, the surprised sorceress glared at Makarov when he came out from behind. "Sorry." He didn't look it.

"Don't go around surprising people!" she snapped, turning her glare at Gourry and Macao, whose faces went from amused to flat and inexpressive instantly. Her burning gaze darted around the room for a moment, making sure no one else was laughing at her expense. "What were you saying about Gourry?" the swordsman echoed her, with the use of appropriate personal pronoun.

"Not even a 'good morning'?" Makarov sighed dramatically, "Young people these days!" he tutted in mock-pity at the young of today.

A vein appeared on Lina's forehead. "Get on with it, old man." She hissed, deciding that lashing out at the guy in charge of the guild she'd just joined on her second day fell firmly into the arena of A-Bad-Idea. It didn't quite fall into the pit of A-Very-Bad-Idea-Indeed, however, because Makarov seemed rather nice and lenient.

Grinning at her mischievously, Makarov did as she asked. Well, she'd demanded but he was willing to take it as a request. Clearing his throat, he held out a square of paper, which he put in front of Gourry.

"This," he declared grandly, "is a Mage Guild Mercenary Assistance Form. It's the result of Magic Council policy some time ago, when mages were more likely to have more physically, combat oriented companions." The old man explained. "A long time ago, there was a lot less 'physical' mage so to speak, leaving us as what Mercenary Guilds refer to as 'Squishy Wizards'. To counter this, some mages found companions who trained their bodies. Since they were doing the same work, those who weren't part of Mercenary Guilds wanted the same benefits but most Mercenary Guilds frowned on this. They thought we'd edge them out of the market. So, the Magic Council worked it out, so non-mages can effectively be honorary members of Mage Guilds so long as the mage they're partnered with is a member."

During his explanation, Lina had moved next to Gourry and begun to read the form. Looking at the Guild Master, she asked "Did you?"

"'Did we' what?" he returned, confused.

"Edge them out of the market." She clarified impatiently.

Makarov sighed. "Some would say we did, as more physical forms of magic were created, or rediscovered. Nowadays, most Mercenary Guilds work as bodyguards or soldiers and there aren't all too many left in Fiore."

"So, this means so long as Lina's a member, so am I?" Gourry inquired, although it's unlikely he would have used such a word.

"Weren't you listening?" Lina scolded him, which bounced off his proverbial thick skin. You had to get used to it, to survive two weeks with her.

"Just fill out that, bring them back to me, and it's done." Makarov said quickly. Lina noted sourly that the people here were good at getting in the way before she could get a good argument going. Really, they seemed nice enough but none of them seemed to know a really good fig-

"Gray you bastard!"

_Thump! Crash!_

"You damn fire-brain!"

_Crash! Crack!_

A blur with a noticeable pink splotch shot past, then accompanied by Gray making a vaguely victorious sound. At least, victorious until Natsu threw a nearly empty barrel at him, at which point the Ice Mage let out something more appropriately described as a 'squawk'. Natsu's own act of triumphant glee, possibly the beginnings of a dance or some sort of bizarre jig, was forestalled when the owner of previously mentioned – and thrown – barrel made her presence known. It was, considering that she had just lost the last of her morning wake-up beer barrel, not as painful as Cana could have made it.

Events followed a familiar path, as though following a groove etched onto the metaphorical subconscious of the world, as most of the guild piled in. Lina and Gourry watched, amused, interested and worried. The sorceress shot a look at Makarov, who had failed to react in anyway at all.

"This a daily event?" Lina asked curiously.

The old man chuckled. "My children are very...energetic." he turned to look at the brawl for a moment, fondness in his eyes.

'_Children?'_ Lina wondered about that phrasing, as off to the side Gourry scribbled his details down with a pencil thoughtfully provided by Mirajane. Almost as if he was reading her mind, which wouldn't surprise Lina given the amount of power contained in his small body, Makarov turned back and spoke.

"I have been meaning to speak to you on this." He said in a quiet, serious manner. "Every member of this guild is as a child of my own. Their loss is my loss. Their pain is my pain. I guide my children as best I can, trusting them as I do so to look out for each other." Lina found her unable to look away from his diamond hard eyes. The power she kept sensing, vague impressions of incredible magical might, garnered through years of experience, was all too clear. "You have joined my guild, and the same wholeheartedly applies to you. If you need help, we will extend not just our hand, but our entire body. Remember, young lady with the power to destroy cities, our trust in you. Our trust that you can use your power wisely." His voice was solemn, and as Lina listened she'd realised his meaning.

"'We're happy you joined and will help if you need it, but in return don't go around blowing towns up?' is what you mean?" Lina asked, smirking cheekily at him. "Sure, old man. On that note, Macao said we had a train to catch." '_Note to self: found out a train is.'_ "We'll drop the papers off when we get back. Oi, you two, let's go!" she suddenly stood up, and Macao and Gourry found themselves being dragged towards the door. Kicking it open, acknowledging the farewells and wishes of good luck from the guild members who saw them leaving with a wave of the hand that realised Macao, Lina's smirk grew. "I promise, I'll only blow up towns if I have a good reason."

The door shut on Makarov's comical spluttering of distress. A moment later, Lina poked her head back in.

"Or, y'know, it seems like a good idea at the time."

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

In a small, abandoned shack in the town of Henorin, voices rose.

"Ain't my fault, I told ya!" a rough voice said defensively. "How tha hell was I s'posed to bloody know 'bout some fuckin' trip wire. None o' them even knew it was there."

A scathing voice retorted "Then how the devil do you explain it? One of them _must_ have put it up, and the only reason you would have for not knowing is that oh so precious mind magic of yours cannot quite cut the mustard!" the voice was gentlemanly, the manner of a man of high class practically infused within it. It felt somehow sacrilegious for it to be in a place like this, at least without dignity of being in the midst of a tryst or having been stealthily arranged by servants for their eccentric master. If any part of either of those had been suggested, at least one of the voices would be swearing.

The first voice snarled wordlessly for a moment before returning to the use of an actual language, if it could be called such. "Ya keep sayin' that, ponse, an' I'll show ya just how much damage a mind can take. An' then a little bit more." The threat hung in the air, and the refined voice took in a deep breath in preparation for a truly wounding repartee. Sadly, this was not to be.

"Would you two shut up?" this voice was calm, but an undertone of extreme annoyance was evidence. "We need to focus. Do you _want_ that old bastard to find us? Do you _want _to fight Reeclis, unprepared?" he challenged his companions, who shuddered at the thought of facing that...abomination. "Right, so work together. Rosk, go with Dem tonight and get the rest of the lacrima. We need them to finish the device. Together, your magic should be enough." He ordered them firmly.

The squabbling pair accepted this, as they usually did when he was serious.

"What shall you be doing?" Rosk asked, curious. "Surely a task this important should be attended by all of us, to ensure we prove successful."

"The ponse 'as got a point."

"The lacrima developer has sent requests to various guilds in the area, in the light of your failure last night." In the shadows, a small, grim, expression grew. "I'm not willing to risk any of the stronger guilds sending mages. I will make sure they do not arrive."

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

Considering some of the places and accompanying circumstances he had woken in, Zelgadis had to admit that being in a dark cave, with two unconscious companions, was not the worst that could have happened. For one thing, at least one of said girls was a powerful sorceress. Of course, that was only useful when she wasn't unconscious. It might very well save the day later, but right now it was about as helpful as a spoon made of cheese for use with boiling hot soup course. For another, they weren't being actively attacked by any derange cultists or monster, which was always a plus. A plus that never lasted long, he noticed.

At least they probably wouldn't cause a cave-in. Lina wasn't there; hence random destruction was far less likely. Trying to rouse the recumbent princess, he observed where they were. A dark tunnel, as previously stated, but now, cast _Light, _he saw_;_ the wall had signs of stone-working. Probably tunnels discovered by the original builders of the ruins when they expanded downwards, which they reinforced.

"_Aqua Create._" He snapped his fingers, a small amount of water appearing above Amelia's head. A petty twinge of amusement bubbled up inside him when Amelia shot up, coughing and spluttering. He was a serious person, but still. There was something childishly amusing about dumping water on someone to wake them, even if he squashed it as soon as it appeared.

"Mr. Zelgadis?" Amelia shook her head and looked around, confused. "What happened? Where are we?"

The chimera had moved above the sacrificial girl and repeated the procedure, soaking her simple, sensible light red dress, although she stirred slowly. "I think we knocked into the tunnels beneath the ruins." He explained, watching the girl. He lifted his hood and mouth cover, deciding that her waking up in a dimly lit tunnel with a rocky, blue man with wire for hair standing above her was probably not a good idea.

"AHHHH!"

Of course, a tall, mysterious hooded man in a dimly lit tunnel looking down at her with sharp eyes was not particularly better. Zelgadis wasn't sure where it came from, but a bowl full of something hot appeared in her hand. The steaming contents were promptly thrown in his face. His hood and shoulders dripped something which smelled suspiciously beef-like.

"!" she screamed at him. When he remained in the same spot for a full half a second, she reacted as any sensible person would. She gripped the fallen, mostly empty bowl and began to flail at Zelgadis.

"Hey, listen, stop, hey!" Zelgadis tried, lifting his arms to try and ward her off. She couldn't actually hurt him, the hot liquid hadn't even burnt him and the bowl would break if it actually hit him, but its hard to reason with someone acting like this. "Calm down, stop it, listen!"

Amelia finally got with the program and jumped in. "Please miss, calm down. We rescued you from those evil men!" she shouted it righteously. Zelgadis absently wondered if she was likely to cause a cave in.

Though her eyes were closed so she didn't have to see the man she was trying to knockout with a bowl, the former sacrifice heard her. It was hard not to. Her arms slowed, then stilled. She opened her eyes and caught sight of Amelia. "Um, pardon me?"

Grumbling, Zelgadis pulled his cloak off and began to twist it, squeezing the liquid out. "We saved you from being sacrificed by a cult. You'd be dead by now if it wasn't for us." He added, a tad sourly. You couldn't brood – not he even intended to brood, it just happened – if you smelled strongly of...beef noodles? "Where the hell did you get a bowl of beef noodles?"

The girl looked at them, startled by Zelgadis' odd appearance and the general normality of Amelia in contrast. Her gaze bounced between the two of them. "Cult?" she asked weakly.

Amelia nodded solemnly. "Indeed! We came upon them in the forest above as they prepared to spill innocent blood for their depraved, nay, _evil _religion! Like the righteous hammer of all that is good, we battled the nefarious doers of evil! With love of goodness and pure in our hearts, we agents of good brought them to their knees, for the shadow of evil cannot stand when the light of justice shines brightly!" Bereft of a cliff, tree or other vantage point from which to let the world hear her, Amelia settled for puffing her chest proudly and waving a finger energetically.

Her gaze was torn from the proud, smiling Amelia to the scowling figure of Zelgadis, and amended her earlier belief that he was the weird one. After all, you can't help how you look but you can help being more hammy than an all-you-can-eat pork buffet. Besides, the blue man didn't exactly look like an 'agent of good'; at least not one you'd picture after that speech. You'd think of someone in shining armour, with a magic sword. _Or a lance, with a horse! Which shots lightning! And he'd have an animal sidekick, like...a...a...a beaver!_

"His name would be Mr. McNibbles!" she declared happily, to the utter puzzlement of her rescuers.

"What?" Zelgadis asked flatly. Somehow, he _knew_ this girl was going to be as weird as anyone else he'd travelled with.

The girl went red. "S-sorry, I got carried away thinking about something. Um...thank you for rescuing me!" the girl said, embarrassed. She looked around again, as if just realising they were in a cave. "Uh, excuse me, but if you saved me in the forest, why are we underground?"

The Princess took a breath, chest visibly swelling, and the girl feared she would hear more about justice. However, as her lungs prepared to fuel her mouth, Amelia realised something. She deflated. Now it was her turn to go slightly red, her cheeks flushing. "Uh, actually...I got knocked out." Amelia pressed her pointer fingers together, embarrassed. "The cult leader got me."

"The cult leader attempted to kill us with a powerful spell after we got knocked into the ruins. I managed to Ray Wing away, but the blast wave still knocked us deep." Zelgadis informed them, replacing his cloak. "The tunnels behind us are collapsed, so we can't go that way. We haven't suffocated, so there must be another way out. What's your name?" he suddenly asked the girl, who was surprised by rapid the change in topic.

"Uh, my name is Okura. Pleased to meet you!" ingrained politeness took over and she gave a short bow in greeting. Long blonde hair hung from her head, and Zelgadis supposed people who cared would say she was pretty enough, not drop dead gorgeous but still attractive. The chimera barely paid it any attention, simply cataloguing information. She was roughly between him and Amelia in height as well.

Indicating himself, the chimera replied "I'm Zelgadis, that's Amelia. Okura, could you explain where you got the bowl of noodles from?"

Okura smiled at this, beaming proudly. "That was my own version of Requip. It lets me get things from a marked location. I use it to deliver food! Uncle makes the food while I make the delivery. He puts the food in place before I reach the costumer. This means it reaches them in record time, completely fresh!" she said it in the manner of someone who had said it a thousand times, but never got tired of it.

"Requip?" Amelia asked.

"Yes. Requip." Okura confirmed, not quite understanding.

There was a moment of silence, the girls staring at each other in non-comprehension.

"What _is_ Requip?" Zelgadis asked finally.

This seemed to confuse Okura. "It's magic. Requip. Everyone knows Requip! It's one of the most widely used types of magic in all of Fiore!"

Zegladis' eyes narrowed. "Fiore...I've never heard of a country called Fiore. And I know magic, and I've never heard of something called Requip. Is it Shamanism?"

"Shamanism?" Okura's face screwed up. "You mean worshipping totems and animals and stuff?"

"What? No!" Zelgadis closed his eyes, feeling a headache coming. "Right, I think we're getting confused here."

Something occurred to Amelia. "Mr. Xellos did say it was another world, so maybe magic is different here." She suggested.

Zelgadis bit back a growl at the mention of the damn Mazoku. "Well, yes, that might be right. But if so, why is our magic still working? It's all fuelled by the forces of our own world, yet Shamanism still works, and so does White Magic. Wait, never mind." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "We can think about that when we're _not_ in a tunnel underground, without any food."

"Another world?" they turned back to Okura, who stared at them, gapping. Before either could move, she had leapt at them. "You're from another world?" her eyes were _sparkling_ Zelgadis realised; in sheer excitement. '_Oh gods, she's excitable. Amelia and a girl who gets distracted thinking about something called 'Mr. McNibbles' and uses magic to deliver food... fantastic._' "What's it like? What colour is your sky? Do you have antenna? What sort of animals do you have? Is there many flavours of noo-"

"What's that piece of paper?" Zelgadis tried desperately, not in the mood to deal with questions he would privately label as 'completely stupid', but Amelia would describe as 'quirky'. "Next to your foot."

The delivery girl looked down, and did indeed find a piece of paper next to her foot. Picking it up, she began to read it. After a moment, she cried out "Uncle!"

"Uncle?" Zelgadis' brows furrowed in confusion.

"He put it with the noodles. He wrote it, and left it there in case I was able to use my magic." The chimera realised, with sudden ominous fear, Okura was starting to sniffle. He shot Amelia a Look, clearly telling her to deal with it. The Princess nodded and moved to comfort the girl. Before she could do this, however, Okura leapt at the nearest person, viciously crying a stream of exaggerated tears. The nearest person at that point was, by a very narrow margin, Zelgadis. As she clung to him, wailing about her uncle, Zelgadis couldn't help but consider this inevitable. Things always turned out like this, although usually only when Lina was around. Half the time they were fighting for their lives, a quarter they were stopping somewhere for Lina and Gourry to gorge themselves, and the rest of the time at least one of them was being embarrassed by wacky events which Zelgadis was sure only happened because the universe was dedicated to interspersing Lina's desperate adventures with..._hi-jinks_ of all things.

"Uh...there, there?" he tried weakly, understandably awkward. Amelia shrugged when he sent her another look. He silently mouthed "Get. Her. Off. Me. **Now**." He backed it up with a glare. Cringing under his glare, Amelia stepped forward.

"Miss Okura? Are you alright?"

Zelgadis blocked out the actual conversation, it being something he had no experience in, and indeed he wanted none either. All he knew was that a minute later Okura was detached from him and chatting happily with Amelia, telling her all about her Uncle, who he gathered she lived with.

"-and he once punched a tree out of the ground because he thought it was giving our house a dirty look!" the girl finished happily. Amelia was doing her best to keep any expressions from her face, although in the privacy of her head the thought '_He sounds a bit...unusual._' was as far as she was willing to go.

"He sounds insane." Zelgadis muttered. "Right, so your Uncle left that note there. What else does it say?"

"Oh!" Remembering the cause of current events, the girl waved the note eagerly. "It's been a couple days since I disappeared, but he's putting fresh bowls there all time!"

"So you can summon more?" Amelia asked.

Okura nodded, although the word failed to convey the sheer force and energy she put into the gesture. "Yep! I can do it all day. Since we get orders a couple hours or days in advance, so sometimes there are days when I need to take _heaps _of stuff around."

Zelgadis sighed. "At least we won't starve.' He rummaged through his pockets. "Damn, all my stuff is still in my bag at the inn, nothing to write a response with."

A flash of light filled the tunnel for a moment. Okura grinned at him, a pen in hand. "Never fear! I always keep stuff like this in my personal Requip storage."

Amelia looked at the item. "What is it?"

Unnoticed to them both, Zelgadis muttered "You still haven't explained what Requip is."

The delivery girl blinked at her. "It's a pen. For writing. Don't you have them where you're from?" the princess shook her head. "Well, most hold ink but this one runs on magic! So, what do I write to Uncle?" she asked, turning over the blank side of the note.

"Tell him you're fine, ask him to keep putting food, enough for three, out for you to summon and tell him that we're going to try and find our way to the surface. If he knows about any tunnel systems, ask for a map or any information." Zelgadis instructed her. As she scribbled and he advised her, a second line of thoughts was going on in the back of his head.

'_She actually summoned physical objects from another location. And not just a single type of item, its food and a bowl. That's a complex mix of chemicals and materials. Is it a form of Astral Teleportation? No, I don't think so._' His brow creased as much as it could, given the hard nature of his skin, as he thought about it.

"Done!" she declared happily. Amelia was reading it and nodding, so he assumed it was workable. "Want me to send it back?"

Amelia gave her a thumps up and Zelgadis nodded.

"So, what now?"

"I think we need to start walking." Amelia suggested, point down the tunnel.

"Yay, road-trip!" Okura shouted in excitement.

Zelgadis froze for a second, glancing around the tunnel. Ok, no collapses from that. "Please, keep your voice down. I have no desire to be buried alive."

"Oh, sorry." She whispered this time.

"You don't have to whisper, Miss Okura." Amelia reassured her. '_And I think she'll explode if she tries it for long.' _She thought.

"Right." Okura said at a normal level. "Let's go!" she pointed and started walking away. Zelgadis held his position, sighing.

Pointing in the opposite direct, he said "Wrong way. That way's collapsed."

"I knew that!"

"I'm sure you did." _'What have I gotten myself into?'_ he wondered in the solitude of his thoughts. It was probably the only kind he'd get, as he strode quickly after the fast moving figures of the girls, into the darkness beneath the world.

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

Trains turned out to be another addition to her list of things she loved about this world. Lina sighed happily, leaning back in the comfortable seat. Macao had persuaded her to remove her cape and attaching shoulder-pads, pointing out it was the only real part of her clothing that stuck out and it paid to make a good impression. Gourry's armour wasn't too unusual, not coupled with a sword on his belt. The older mage said most people would simply assume him to be a Mercenary or Swordmage.

"If we had these back home, travel would be _so_ much easier! No slogging around, at the mercy of nature or the weather. And it would be so faster to get between places." Lina said, watching the passing scenery. She didn't often get to see fast passing scenery; at least not when she wasn't using her magic to outrun or chase something. Such times were not the best for taking in the view. "What do these things run on again?"

"Some run on coal, some on magic. A fair number these days do both, from what I've heard. Not sure how it's done myself." Macao replied. Lina was intensely curious about anything magical, he was discovering. Gale-Force Reading Glasses were on the top of her list to buy after these jobs. An idea occurred to him. "You could ask to have a look, at the driver's cabin at least. They might not let you, but it's worth a try."

"Really?"

Macao shrugged. "Sure, might as well give it a go. Worse they can do is say no." He reasoned.

Lina tapped her chin for a moment, and then stood up. "Could be interesting. Oi, Jellyfish Brain, try not to forget your own name while I'm gone, 'kay?" Without waiting for a reply from Gourry, Lina departed. The swordsman sighed, but remained seated. He had found a rather interesting magazine about swords at the train station, which Macao had offered to lend him the money to get. The big story of this issue of "Swords Swords Swords" was the anniversary of the creation of 'Sword Chucks', an invention of the magazine's creator.

Whistling quietly to herself as she made her way forward, Lina absently eyed the train's other passengers. A downside to trains, she noted, was that you couldn't hide your route. You couldn't even go off-road; you were stuck on the rails. A horse might not last long, but it could keep up just long enough for bandits to get on board. A greed-stained grin grew, hoping she would be lucky enough for bandits to attack this train. She needed to start her reputation on this world. With some minor...okay, _major_ changes, of course.

She was only three carts away from the front, and contemplating what to spend the reward for the jobs on, when she realised the train was slowing down. Lina turned to a member of the train's staff. She had bothered remembering what this one's actual purpose was. "Hey, why is the train slowing down? I thought it would take a couple hours to reach Henorin."

The man's brow furrowed, and he gave her a perplexed look. "I'm not sure what you me-" he stopped when he looked out the window and saw the speed of the passing scenery. Biting back a curse, as it was impolite to distress costumers, he replied in a tight voice "I'm sure it's nothing, miss."

Lina raised an eyebrow at him, not buying it. "Yeah, right. Since it's 'nothing', there's no good reason for you to rush off and check if anything's going wrong, is there?" she might not know about how trains were supposed to work, but she could tell when someone was alarmed. Seeing the nervous look on his face, Lina relented. "But you know, I am _so very worried-_" her voice thick with sarcasm "would it be possible for you to go up front and check?" her smug grin said what she didn't say.

Taking the chance while he had it, the man nodded gratefully. Well, if you were going to have a problem you should have noticed pointed out to you, at least it was by someone smart. He probably shouldn't have let his friends talk him into that drinking contest last night. "Of course miss, I shall do so immediately." He turned and moved towards the front of the train as fast as possible, while trying to keep up the facade of normality. The next cabin didn't have any of his co-workers in it, he realised with a pang of anxiety. Company policy stated that the first three passenger cabins have members of staff on them at all times, in case of emergencies. There were others moving around the train, but those three were to stay in the same place the entire trip.

It was only halfway through the last cabin before the employee only front carts that he realised he was being followed by the girl. He turned back to say something to her, but she cut him off. "I want to see the front. Don't worry, I'm a sor- mage, and if something has happened I can always help." When he looked to speak anyway, she added "Do you have the time to stand here arguing with me?"

Apparently not, he simply sighed and kept going. Lina silently basked in victory behind him.

Pulling entering the staff cabin, he warned her, "Don't touch anything. I don't want to get into more trouble then I should if you're found up here."

"Yeah yeah, touch anything, right." Lina waved him off absently. "Should this cart be so...empty? And quiet?"

"No." Was all he said, but Lina could see him tensing.

"Listen, how about I take lead?" she suggested. "I do have magic, after all.

He considered this, and nodded in acceptance. Without noticing, both had begun to walk softly, not a hard task on the plush carpet. The man was getting more unnerved by the minute, since _someone_ should have been around by now.

Lina approached the door to second last cabin, but held off from opening it. Leaning down, she peered through the keyhole. It was small, but she could just make out someone in a long coat of some kind, kneeling next to something. Quietly, she whispered to him "Do any of the staff here wear long black coats?"

He shook his head. Lina grinned.

"All right then. Stand back." They took a few steps back, where Lina took a combative stance. She considered the door for a moment, and then decided on the appropriate force. As she prepared her magic, a thought occurred to her. "What's your name, by the way? I can't just keep thinking of you as 'this guy', can I?"

"Uh, Arnold."

She nodded. "Right, nice to meet you, Arnold. Now, if you'll excuse me..." she focused on the task at hand.

"_Bomb Di Wind._" A sphere of swirling air formed between her open hands. She shoved it forwards, launching the ball into a blast of pressurised air. For a split second, the door bulged, before splintering under the tremendous force. A hail of broken wood filled the room beyond. Ignoring her companion's silent gap, Lina strode confidently into the cabin. The dark figure was gone, but a row of several devices, each an array of machinery wrapped around crystal spheres, filled most of the room. Three of the six appeared damaged, cracks slowly spreading and metal rusting. The fourth bore a shimmering black rune, half a rusted dagger poking out of it. "I think we've found the problem."

A sliver of movement was all the warning Lina had. With a cry she leapt to the side, a pair of throwing knives burying into the door frame as she dodged. Even as she dodged, Chaos Words formed in her mind and dissolved into threads of power. She hit the ground, rolled, and her hand flashed up. "_Flare Arrow!_" A needle of flames shot in the direct the movement had come from. She didn't see if it hit, completing her roll behind the cover of the closest magical engine.

"Wha…what?" the shocked Arnold stuttered out, staring at the knives as they shone in the brief light of Lina's fire spell.

"Get behind something!" Lina hissed at him. Gods, didn't he know the slightest thing about fights?

Had Lina stopped for a moment and considered things, it was likely she would come to the entirely sensible conclusion that no, a man who worked on a usually calm train was not someone you'd expect to have much combat experience. Though he did seem surprisingly quick on the uptake; at least in the 'cowering behind solid, protective objects' area.

"You wanna make it easy by surrendering now?" Lina called out. "Only, if this fight lasts long I'll have to break out my proper spells and there won't be much train left if I do that." A whimper from Arnold was disregarded as unimportant.

An infuriatingly calm voice answered her from further away. "That would only make my objective here so much easier to accomplish."

Lina sorted through the words for a moment, before saying "I get you. You came to destroy the train, or at least stop it. Me blowing this cart to pieces would certainly get that done. I guess I'll have to hold back."

Silence. Then; "Hm, you're exactly right."

"Oh, I know I am. Just like I know you don't want to risk being seen, or have any destructive magic. Why bother quietly sabotaging the...engines" she was guessing as to what the magical devices did, "if you could just destroy the whole cart? It's hardly going to go unnoticed, so you can't be trying to hide the fact that the train was sabotaged. You've either got friends who are waiting to jump the train, or have some method getting away after you've done the deed. So, your only magic is focused and not highly destructive in an explosive way." Lina said it confidently. It all made sense, at least at the moment with her brain running fast. "Considering the state of the engines, you can age or rust metal and weaken either magic itself or the lacrima's actual physical structure. Am I right?"

A laugh greeted her theory, but she could tell it wasn't of mock. "I'm not going to tell you if you're right, you know."

"But I am."

"..." a sigh. "This is unfortunate." The voice was weary, she noticed.

"It is." She agreed. "So, how about this: I stay here and let you leave. You've already slowed the train; I doubt we'll reach Henorin by nightfall at the speed we're going now. I'd guess you've already destroyed any means of communication and getting repairs. This way, at least, we'll still make it eventually."

"You'd just let me go, like that?" the voice asked, surprised.

Lina had to bite back a snarl and curse. "I _really_ don't want to. In nearly any other case, I'd be all for trying to blow you to bits. Unfortunately, I just joined a guild and they seem like a good bunch. I don't want the first thing they get from me is complaints about me blowing up trains. And I doubt I could avoid doing that if you fight as smart as you sabotage. So this is a _one-time offer._"

"Once in a lifetime, never to be repeated?" the voice asked with a note of humour in it.

It was a lot harder to avoid growling and attacking this time. "Yes." She dragged out. "_Your_ lifetime, if you don't accept _right now_."

There was silence, and Lina found herself half-hoping he'd try something or refuse, but it seemed luck wasn't with her. "I accept. As a courtesy, I'll tell you this; there are no bandits, and it seems I have been wrong about this train. I take it since you're travelling from Magnolia the guild you joined is Fairy Tail? Well, if you were here for the reasons I feared, you would never had offered this deal."

Lina started at that. _'Why would he...the theft! The requester needed protection before tonight! He's here to stop anyone from answering the request! He thinks I'm not here for it because this deal means we'd miss the time.' _Careful not to let her thoughts show in her voice, she said "Fantastic, we're getting delayed because you're a bad guesser, that makes me feel so much better! I've got some damn stupid monsters to beat up." '_Technically: not a lie.'_ "Now, are you going to leave or should I break out the tea and biscuits for a long debate?"

Assuming her hurrying him was thanks to her annoyance at missing a fight, the saboteur complied. The sound of a door at the far end of the cabin opening and closing filled the air. Lina waited a minute, then stuck her head out. No traps. The rune on the fourth engine had faded, and a rusted knife lay on the ground next to it. Walking over to it, she picked it up carefully. It was practically made of rust at this point, deteriorated to the point the only thing holding it together was the network of rust.

"Is he gone?" Arnold asked from the cover of his own machine.

"Yeah..." Lina contemplated the knife and the damaged devices. The saboteur had been in the process of putting the knife _into _this one, which was undamaged. But there weren't any marks on it, and he had been pushing it into the rune. So, something involving magic and this knife was what had damaged the other engines. What common factors linked them? Well, for one-

"Why did you let him go?" Arnold squawked angrily at her. 'Squawked' really was the best way to describe it. She glared at him.

"You heard me, my magic is destructive. Look, my _Flare Arrow_ melted some of the metal and burnt the carpet clear away. This was the only way to avoid anyone dying or the train being completely destroyed." She explained angrily, eyeing him fiercely. "Besides, I doubt someone who could take out so many people without anyone realising would be a pushover. Speaking of people, let's go check if anyone is still alive."

They were, as it happens. The staff was piled in an unconscious heap in the driver's cabin. Lina fixed that by applying some of the limited White Magic she knew. The man in charge was incredibly grateful, when he was awoken. Not one of them had seen their attacker, beyond a few feeling something press against their back before losing consciousness. He had seen a bandit attack or two, and agreed with Lina's actions. Promising to put in a good word, he was nonetheless surprised to hear she was a member of Fairy Tail. The fact she had chosen a method which didn't involved wanton destruction came as a great shock. Lina was starting to get a bit of an idea of what Fairy Tail was most famous for.

Heading back quickly to her companions, Lina found herself the target of thanks and praise. The man in charge, whose actual title Lina had completely missed and refused to admit it, had apparently sent some of the staff to explain the situation to the passengers, glossing over details slightly and settling for "a saboteur was stopping the middle of destroying the train's engine by a mage, a short redheaded girl. Miss Inverse saved the day, and we could have been stuck here well into the night." It had been explained to her that magic used in the rail system would have prevented any other trains from being sent along the tracks after them, but even then it would still take until night at least to get and replace the engines. That was, if they had some readily available, and technicians to take the old out and install the new.

Being thanked by large numbers who didn't cringe when they heard her name was rather new to Lina. Normally something spoiled it before she had much of a chance to enjoy being praised and welcome. It felt good, and her progress back to companions was slowed considerably. It was only a pity this particular train was the same class, or she'd be dining in a plush armchair. By the time she reached Gourry and Macao, she was fit to burst with pride and self-satisfaction.

She smugly, some might go so far as to say arrogantly, though never where she could hear, told them what had happened. As she did so, she absently toyed with the rusted dagger, wrapped in a piece of cloth. It would help her when she stopped to think about what had been done to the engines.

"That's great Lina, and I'm really happy to hear that someone out there will be spreading tales of when Fairy Tail actively prevented damages, but that does leave us missing the requested time." Macao pointed out when she was done. He really was happy to hear it. For one thing, it showed that Lina was aware of the damage two powerful mages fighting could cause to bystanders without meaning to. And she was willing to put the guild above her own personal feelings or gain.

"I'm still surprised you didn't just blast him." Gourry blurted, to which a mysterious slipper materialised in Lina's hand and collided with his face."What?"

"Jellyfish brained idiot!" Lina roared at him before calming. To Macao, she said "Actually, only one of us has to miss it. None of us, but I won't be much use if I have to carry both of you."

"Carry?" Macao gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I can use a spell, _Raywing_, to carry multiple people with me in flight. I'm fairly certain I can get us to Henorin before night, but only if I carry one of you. To get the speed we need, and over that distance, will be exhausting enough as it is." She explained. She hadn't mentioned that the saboteur had been here to stop them, even if he hadn't known it. She didn't want anyone overhearing.

Macao considered this seriously, but when he opened his mouth to speak, Gourry got in first.

"Take Macao." He seemed happy to leave at that.

"Why?" Lina demanded when it became apparent he wasn't going to expand his statement.

"Huh? Oh, because I'm probably heavier even without my armour. And he knows about what to do on jobs and stuff." Gourry explained, rubbing the back of his beck in mild embarrassment or nervousness at having to explain.

"That's a pretty good reason." The older mage admitted. "I'd hate to leave Gourry, but this way we can still reach it in time and you can get some experience, Lina."

Lina drew in a breath to sigh, looking at Gourry seriously for a quiet moment. "Fine." She conceded. "I was going to suggest it myself; I just wanted to know why a Jellyfish like _you_ would say it."

Macao stood up. "We should get going then. Gourry, you remember the address of the place we're going? You should be able to get directions to it fairly easily."

The swordsman nodded, not noticing Lina's suspicious expression.

"Alright, what is it?" Lina asked, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

"Hmmm." Gourry went into a 'thinking' pose, hand on chin. After thirty seconds, during which Lina's expression became steadily more irate, he snapped his fingers and opened his mouth. Then it closed and he went back to thinking. "I...think..." he finally said "that...I don't remember." He laughed at his own memory. At least, he laughed until Lina laid into him.

Walking away a minute later, she dusted off her hands as she congratulated herself on a job well done. Gourry would likely disagree, but he didn't have much say at the moment since he was lying on the floor, a pile of bruises reaching upwards.

Chuckling at their antics, Macao searched his pockets of a pen and paper. By the time he had written down the address, Gourry had recovered. Handing it to him, Macao warned him not to lose it. "We should be there. If we aren't we've probably found a place to stay. If memory serves, Henorin doesn't have many places, so just ask around until you find us. People tend to remember Fairy Tail mages."

"Ready?" Lina asked. "You did want to actually get going before the train arrives, right?"

"See you tonight Gourry. Ah, Lina, don't be in such a rush." Macao waved a farewell as they left, Lina settling for a "You better not get lost, Jellyfish!"

When the two were gone, Gourry settled back and began to read "Swords Swords Swords" once more. There was a moment when the thought that something might go wrong and he wouldn't be there to help, but it was easy to get over it. Lina would be fine on her own, she usually was, and she had Macao there to help. Things would be fine.

He just hoped the town would survive.

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

And here we all are, at the end of chapter 4. Chapter 5 has already began to form. Granted, only in my mind but once I've posted this I'll get a handle on it. Again, thank InuOtaku911 for beta'ing, and especially in getting it back to me so fast.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey all, quick new chapter right? Well, I was bored, needed felt like writing, I've got a great idea for the next chapter, all that jazz. To be honest, I should be asleep when I'm writing this, since I've got volunteer work at my cousin's retirement home later...today, technically. She manages it, I mean.

Important thing: credit to **InuOtaku911** and **DragonSword35d** for Randal's magic. This might be a minor spoiler, but meh. I was brain dead on that; my original idea did not fit the character at all, totally undignified. And if Randal is anything, it's dignified. He is, after all, a gentleman! Not some psychic lout!

Is that a spoiler? Ah, screw it.

Info:

_Slayers Magic_

**Fairy Tail Magic**

'_Thoughts.'_

"Talking."

"This. Is. _Emphasis._"

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Exactly how many locks can one door have?" Lina asked testily, in-between stuffing the food hastily purchased into her maw.

Macao just sighed and waited patiently. They had been waiting twenty minutes after hitting the door bell, sending chimes into the building, and Macao had been getting worried. At last, someone had come to open the door. After a while. As they listened to sounds of locks and bolts being released they looked at the building again. The Independent Lacrima Research Centre was rather less...impressive then the name would have you believe, being a small, squat, square building on the edge of Henorin. Unfortunately: the far side from the train station. Lina had flown as a fast as she could, following the rails, but they were an hour and a half behind the requested time. Macao had resorted to using his magic to provide light so they could see it.

"Good evening, we're here in response to the request for guards. Sorry for being late, train troubles." Macao Conbolt, mage of Fairy Tail, greeted the eyes that looked at them suspiciously through the small space the man behind the door opened it, as pleasantly as he could.

"You would be the requested mages?" the eyes glanced at Lina and her armful of snacks for a moment. "How di- I mean, why are you arriving _now_? So long after we asked for you." The voice was clipped, sharp and cultured.

"Subwub sabobtagged da twain" Lina said through a mouth of some sort of cakey thing filled with cream. She'd have to find out what it had been.

"Someone sabotaged the train." Macao translated. "We think they were trying to stop anyone from arriving to help you."

"Good gods!" a few more clicks and clanks and the door opened the rest of the way. "Please, do come in. We are in desperate straits indeed." The man revealed was unexpected to be frank. He wore an expensive looking suit, held a cane in one hand and had a monocle, of all things. His black hair was slicked, carefully smoothed as only the appearance conscious did. "I am Ro- Randal. A pleasure to meet you," Shaking Macao's hand, he reached a white gloved hand towards Lina. He seemed to force himself to actually shake it. His mouth twitched with the suppressed urge to say something. As he led them deeper into the building, Macao caught a quiet muttering that sounded vaguely like "How unladylike."

"Thid plab ib pribby" Lina swallowed "Er, this place is pretty small. Can't imagine much researching going on here." Indeed, the interior seemed to be offices, which did admittedly have papers covered with what looked like mathematical and magical formulae.

"Indeed. You will find that we do the actual magical work below, on the subfloors." Randal explained.

"Where's the rest of the staff?" the older mage was looking around curiously. The building was silent.

"They have been sent away for now." The researcher explained. "We did not wish to have the building crowded while the threat of theft remained." He sniffed disdainfully when he mentioned the theft. He turned to go down a hall, then pulled himself back at the last moment and kept going to the next hall.

"About that; what sort of lacrima was stolen last night, and why do you think they'll come back tonight?" Macao questioned him as they were lead to a door, which Randal opened to reveal a stair well.

"This way, please. It leads to the under levels where the lacrima are stored." Randal explained, shooing them down.

"The lacrima?" Macao repeated.

Randal finally answered after a moment of thought. "They- that is to say, _we_ were working on a new form of focus and amplification lacrima. Tomorrow the council is collecting them, so they can be taken to Era's own testing facilities. A period of several months of tests will begin, after which we hope to receive permission to begin producing a number for commercial use."

Having been given a crash course on the Magic Council and its role policing the mages and associated guilds of Fiore, along with all matters deemed magical, and their home city of Era, Lina could imagine the implications. "So, if the thief doesn't get them tonight, they'll be out of their reach?"

"Indeed." He confirmed. He said nothing more, content to lead them silently. Lina glanced at Macao, who shrugged. Randal didn't seem to be a people person. Still, her mind suspiciously pointed out, he should at least know his way around. Did you see how he nearly went the wrong way? She frowned thoughtfully, watching their guide's back.

He led them through a series of room, each filled with arcane devices and runes painted across the walls. Cracked, damaged and sometimes partially melted lacrima lay in piles in the corners of the room, surrounded by dimly glowing stacks. "The failures." Randal explained. "You would be best advised to stay away from them, unless you have tired of this mortal life."

Now Macao frowned. "Shouldn't you have disposed of them somewhere safe?" he asked, worried.

That seemed to pause Randal, but he recovered magnificently. He looked preoccupied, like trying to have two conversations at once. "We...required them on hand, for further... examination. Ah, we have reached the vault. This is where we keep the lacrima." He hurried forward, not giving them the time to ask another question. "David, the mages from Fairy Tail have arrived."

The room's far wall was covered in safe doors, each covered with complex locks. A man was pulling lacrima out of one of them. A thick bag was at his feet, several lacrima already stuffed into cushioned pockets.

"David, who da 'ell i-, uh, I mean, great." Standing from where he had been kneeling as he sorted through a number of lacrima contained in a small vault, a man dressed in scruffy brown trousers, a teal shirt covered with odd, claw-like purple marks and a dark orange jacket with thickly brown furred shoulders greeted them. "Sorry, furget mi' own 'ead if it ain't screwed on an' all tha'." He stood a few inches taller than Randal and Macao, and possessed a more muscled physique then the posh man, who himself possessed a slightly thinner frame then average. "Bit late, ain't cha?" his forehead and hair were covered by a teal bandanna, though Lina caught sight of dark green hair around the edges. The purple marks on the bandanna formed an eye over his forehead. David thrust hands in fingerless gloves at them.

"We were delayed. Train trouble." Macao said shortly. Something was off. Looking at the lacrima David had been piling, he asked about it.

"Oh, tha's nothing, dun' bother yeself wit' it." The man shrugged. His purple eyes gleamed with an odd look. Meeting him for a moment, Lina was suddenly reminded of whenever Xellos made it clear he knew what they wanted to know, but wasn't going to actually tell them if he did. '_Like he knows more about us then we think he does.'_ A smile cracked his lips. "'s jus' old lacrima. Kind tha' work, but not right."

Randal suddenly tapped Macao on the shoulder. "I will show you the rest of this level. If your companion would keep David here company, we can try and plan our way out of this mess." There was something odd in that last sentence. Lina got the impression he did not mean the same thing as she would think he should mean.

"Sounds good, I'll be 'appy ta have Miss Lina's company." David waved them on. Getting a dull nod from Lina, Macao followed Randal.

'_Or maybe you're just being paranoid._' Lina told herself sternly as Randal led Macao into a side-hall. '_Yes, you're just being paranoid, there's nothing wrong here. After all, Macao wouldn't have left without asking me if there was any trouble._' She smiled dimly, looking around the room. Of course, David over there didn't look like a threat. Those lacrima _did_ look a bit old and worn, even if someone had buffed and shined them to look new.

But part of Lina protested. '_What are you doing?' _it screamed at her. _'He's got a sack; he's shoving lacrima in it, and LOOK AT THE WAY HE'S SMILING!'_ **'Smiling isn't a crime!'** she mentally shouted at herself.

...wait. Lina's brain buzzed thoughts awhirl. Two types of thought seemed to be fighting, wrecking through her brain as they did so.

'_You're not thinking properly! He must have done something!'_

'**Don't be stupid, of course he didn't. You remember what Macao said, pretty much all their magic makes runes appear in the air. Did you see any?'**

''_pretty much all' isn't the same thing as 'all'. If he's a thief, it makes sense that he'd learn magic that doesn't show up like most.'_

'**Randal would have told us if he wasn't meant to be here.'**

'_If he can affect me like this, he could fool or control 'Randal'.'_

''**Randal'? What's that supposed to mean?'**

'_What are you, some kind of idiot? 'Randal' is probably in on it! You heard him, he nearly said something different. And when 'Randal' brought us down, he didn't know how David was.'_

'**Yes he did. Randal didn't have a chance to tell him, so he must have just been distracted. You're getting too paranoid.'**

'_No, I'm not! He probably just caught on when he saw us. And how did he know my name? Macao never said, even to that 'Randal' guy.'_

Lina slowly wandered back to the door she had come through, walking slowly like wadding through mud. When she finally poked her head out, it seemed to clear the air inside her. Looking around curiously, she looked around. On the wall! Magical runes for experimenting. Now, in her experience places were magical research was conducted they tended to be covered with spells designed to contain magic within an area.

'_That bastard! He used magic on me!' _Lina came to the immediate conclusion.

"Sum'than wrong?" 'David' called.

"N-nothing," She gave him a dim smile, like what had been on her face moments before. "Can you just come look at this for a sec?"

"Huh? Sure." The weirdly accented thief sauntered over to her. "Wha'cha found?"

Hidden from him, Lina whispered the words to a spell. Electricity danced across her palm. "You'd better come look." She made sure to sound good and dim, like her mind was busy, '_Thinks he can make me a dim, smiling simpleton! I can't imagine what would happen to Gourry!'_

"As much as I'd luv bein' shocked, the ponse'd be all fussy 'bout it" 'David's' voice whispered into her ear. Lina jumped, but didn't come down. The room around her deformed, slowly melting into darkness. On all sides, endless darkness surrounded her.

"What the hell?" she cried, spinning in the air. She could see her own body clearly, but everything else was just black. Plain, uniform, black.

In front of her, something began to form. 'David' stepped from the darkness. His short, dark green hair was visible. Behind him, Lina saw something else giving a vague impression to the solid shadows. Something _large_.

"Welcome to the world of minds, luv'." 'David' said mockingly, his accent fading somewhat. The shadow behind him shifted slightly, and Lina could make out the outline of a monstrous jaw, a muzzle of massive fangs. "Good work with tha' Empathic Bond, by the way. Too bad I didn't make it strong enough for the wards in this place. But no fears now." He tapped his forehead, and Lina's attention was drawn to the tattoo. It was identical to the eye mark that had been on his bandanna, covering that very spot.

Behind him, the shadow stirred and a single, massive, baneful eye drew open.

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

The moment he had left the vault room, Macao felt his nerves prickle. Something wasn't right.

Randal silently led the way. He didn't seem inclined to talk to the mage. Normally, Macao would have put it down to nerves. Nervous costumers tended to either talk too much or not at all. But he just couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something.

"Please close the doors." Randal informed him stiffly. Macao did so as they passed through first one hall, then another, and finally a third. At the last door, the fancily dressed man cried out in sudden pain. "Blasted craftsmanship!"

"What's wrong?" asked Macao in alarm. "What happened?"

"I am afraid I cut my thumb on this blasted door. The quality of its craftsmanship is quite questionable!" he sneered at the door. Had it been thinking, it would be cowering at the sheer pompery and centuries of concentrated refinement in the sneer. "Would you be so good as continue in while I tend to my wound?"

"Wound?" he chuckled. "Sure. Better make sure it doesn't get infected." He said as he passed. He glanced down, seeing the blood dripping from Randal's bare thumb as he passed.

"I intend to." Something was different in his voice. Tension.

'_Wait, wasn't he wearing glo-'_ he dropped to the ground, the whistling sound that had interrupted his thinking continuing over his head and shattering the door. Fire flared in his hand, roaring out behind him. The curtain of shimmering, violet flames filled the hall behind him. Standing back up, Macao glared through the burning shield. "So, you're the thieves." He called.

"Indeed." The aristocratic voce responded. By the sound of it he had been forced to retreat. "Now, please, do the gentlemanly thing – die!"

A crimson spear broke through the magic fire, aimed for Macao's heart. He dodged, the red attack streaking past. His hand lifted before whipping down, a chain of fire rolling out to wrap around and burn the spear. "**Purple Rain!**" Macao's rune flared, and a stream of violet spheres of fire launched at his attacker. They took the last of the shield with them.

'Randal' stood his ground, manoeuvring his body to avoid those bolts he couldn't deflect with the blade in his hand. The slender blade danced through the air, slicing the concentrated fire in half, which subsequently dissolved. The handle revealed the truth of the weapon, the handle of 'Randal's' cane. The last of the rain were soon gone. They faced each other, eyes hard. Macao noted the white glove on his belt, and the bleeding hand held out. Blood had ceased to fall. Things clicked into place.

"Blood magic," Macao's eyes widened, horrified. "That's been outlawed for centuries!"

"My good man, I'm currently attempting to steal highly advanced lacrima and just tried to kill you, the legalities of my magic are really not a concern at this time." 'Randal' replied with an amused voice.

"What's your real name?" Macao asked, considering his move. "You were hesitating to give it before. You must have used some magic on us so we didn't suspect anything. Dammit, your friend was packing away lacrima!" he muttered the last, glaring now. He really didn't appreciated being fooled like that.

'Randal' hesitated, then nodded. "I am afraid I cannot give you my name, as dishonourable as it is. But you are correct; my companion took care of that. Sadly, in a testing area such as this with so very many wards, it could not last long. Now-" he flourished his sword-cane. "-we must fight! **Blood Spear!**" a blood-red rune glowed as he held out his wounded left hand. A trail of blood streamed from his thumb, curling into a slim, pointed cone with incredible speed. It shot through the air.

Macao leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding and his hand reached out. "**Purple Whip!**" the flaming whip reached down the corridor, but 'Randal' swiped his weapon through it. Sigils flared on the blade as it cut the flames.

"This heirloom will prove more than enough to thwart your magic, my good man!" he held it up as he charged – charged _smartly_, of course. "**Blood Armament!"** a tiny stream of blood wrapped over the blade, smoothing out and tinting it red.

A head-sized ball of wavering fire closed over Macao's arm as he brought it back, coiled to throw. "**Purple Canon!**" Greater in power, size and speed than its lesser counterparts in his **Purple Rain**, the first cannonball was nearly too fast for 'Randal' to parry or dodge. His blooded blade split it down the middle. The second **Purple Canon**, formed the moment the first left Macao's hand, was close behind and 'Randal' knew he couldn't bring his weapon back in time to parry it.

"**Blood Buckler!**" the fireball slammed into the small, round shield that formed over 'Randal's' left hand. He grunted as he was bowled over, forced back. "How in the devil is your fire doing that?" he demanded as he regained his stepping swiftly.

Macao grinned at him. "My talents lay in alteration magic. I'm skilled with transformation magic, enough to fool even an S-Class Mage and I can alter the properties of my fire to give it physical presence."

"Giving fire 'physical presence'?" 'Randal' questioned, then his eyes widened. "A completely malleable, controllable flame that burns so long as it has magic and you can give it mass? My good sir, you wield potent magic, in the right hands!" His voice was impressed. "Now, prove whether yours are those hands!" he exploded into action. "**Blood Crescent!**" his blade slashed through the air as blood from his hand splashed onto the base of the blade and a red crescent of magically hardened blood erupted from its tip.

It soared through the air, and Macao barely had time to duck. Unfortunately for him, 'Randal' took advantage of this to close on him. Pain lanced through his face as the tip of the sword bit into his cheek. He retreated, ignoring the blood flowing down his face. "**Purple Curtain!**" A wave of his fire lifted, but was quickly cut down. His shirt was torn by a close call. Macao responded with a "**Purple Whip!**" that curled up in a loop, feinting towards 'Randal's' chest before continuing down at his feet, forcing the attacker to leapt.

"**Blood Darts!**" a hail of several small red arrow heads launched from his outstretched hand as the thief landed, but a whip of Macao's Purple Flare burnt them away.

The two began to exchange ranged attacks, hammering away at each other. '_He can't keep using blood like that, hell he's already used a lot, but I'm willing to bet he can't keep it up for long, that's why he tries to get close. I just have to keep him far until he's out of power – or blood.' _Macao planned grimly. "You can't keep this up forever; you'll run out of blood!" Macao shouted, a tad breathlessly. He brought deflected a spear and launched a Cannon back in response.

Panting, 'Randal' smirked. "My family has long possessed the knowledge and ability to convert magical energy into blood, and my weapon enhances it. I can keep this up-" he cut through a **Purple Whip** and sent several **Blood Darts** shooting out. "-for hours! Your little friend, however, does not have hours."

"What?" Macao bit back as pain lanced from his leg, too slow in dodging a dart as he digested the words. "What do you mean?" he demanded.

"Heh, my companion has locked her mind away already. If she's left in his grasp-ack!" He backed away as Macao suddenly intensified his **Purple Rain**. "-her mind won't last long, if his control slips!" 'Randal' declared loudly, arms flying as he blocked and parried rapidly.

"If that's true, I don't have time to play with you." Macao held his hands parallel. "**Purple Blast!**" his rune flared, and a massive plume of violet, shimmering fire roared from it, filling the hall.

"Damn- **Blood Wall!**" a shield of his own blood, hardened and glistening, barely kept the flames from devouring 'Randal'. He felt the telltale signs throughout his body. While he knew he could continue to create more blood, at the sacrifice of increasing amounts of magical energy, but there was a limit to how much he could fuel the generation of it at a time. Trying to generate more than he was rightly capable of could have fatal results.

"**Purple Talon!**" a spiky claw, formed of Macao's wavering fire at the end of a thin stream of flames, burst through the shield. It drove into 'Randal's' stomach, curling into a fist before it collided. The thief cried out as he was launched through the air, out the door into the previous hall and into the wall.

Macao passed him, ignoring the unconscious mage as he ran. '_Dammit, I hope he was lying. I'm not sure I could face Master if something happened on her first job. I'm not sure I could face myself, for that matter._'

"-or maybe I could make ya incontinent? Y'know, leave ya wettin' yeself without knowin' it; tha' sort of thing. Then, I could erase the knowledge tha' I made ye incontinent, how funny would tha' be?" 'Dave' rambled on, musing to himself.

For her part, Lina wished she could strangle him. "How about DEATH BY ANNOYANCE! Cause you've already started!" She shouted at him. "Damn, I've met annoying people before, but you are in the top five!" She paused, finger on her bottom lip as she thought about that. "Actually, no, top ten."

The mind mage paused in his ramble, offended. "Wha', you know at least five people who 'ave annoyed you more than me? Seriously? I've been rambling for wha' should feel to you like a couple hours!" he declared.

_Just a few memories, just to slack your hunger._

"Seven people, actually." She corrected him. "And it's not my fault! You just ramble inanely! I endured much worse. Honestly, you could do with a bit of work." She taunted him.

The unkempt thief growled, and the shadow-thing behind him echoed the sound in a far more menacing way. He had ignored anything she said about it, as if pretending it wasn't there. "I could jus' make you wet yeself, ya know. I could be runnin' through ya memories and drawin' out every little fear ya ever had. Instead, I'm trying to annoy ya. Fuckin' appreciate that."

_Her mind would taste delicious._

His eyes flickered to the side for a moment, as if carrying on another conversation, and for all she knew he could be. It was strange. Lina had realised that this place they were, while he claimed it was merely a creation of the mind so they could converse, seemed real enough that they both reacted reflexively, as if still under the influence of muscle memory.

"Who're you chatting to?" she asked casually. It really had felt like she had been here for hours, but from his words it must have been less. Macao would have come back long ago, if it had been hours. "The thing behind you?"

'Dave' scowled at her. "I tol' ya there's nothin'-" he seemed to hold back a shudder "Behind me. So shut it, unless you wanna be a bedwetter fer the rest o' ya life."

_Imagine the sensation as her thought dissolved._

"Shut up!" he hissed a moment later.

"Huh?" Lina squinted at him in curiosity. Perhaps _here_ was a way out. Nothing had work so far. "Wasn't saying anything."

"Not you." He glared; good humour apparently gone.

"So you _are _talking to someone else." She grinned smugly at him.

'Dave' bit back a growl. "How about diapers, do you like them? I might even make it so ya can't change yeself. Does that sound like fun to ya, spending the rest of ya life needin' someone to change ya diapers?" he sneered. She noticed his hands had curled into tight fists, knuckles white. How very odd.

_She is defiant! Consume her!_

"Pfft, you wouldn't." The sorceress waved a hand dismissively.

"Oh?" 'Dave' grinned darkly. "Right, well I'm just gonna take a peek into ya memories then. Let's start with ya darkest ones."

"Oi, get out there!" she screeched in alarm. If he really could, he might be able to discover things like how to cast the _Giga Slave_ and –

"Giga Slave? Now what might that be?" His grin widened at her horrified comprehension at what he'd just done.

She snarled at him "You bastard." '_Tricking me like that! I oughta-'_

'_Oughta, what? Flail helplessly?' _his psychic taunt boomed in her head. '_Now, let's see where the thread _Giga Slave_ leads, shall we?'_

_Let her mind break apart as you devour it!_

"Don't!" she called aloud, alarm in her voice. That other voice she had heard, like a chorus of a hundred madmen, was something she'd deal with later. "You can't! Giga Slave-" There was a moment, as gold light seemed to blaze through her mind. For a second, she had the horrible sensation of knowledge. Not any specific knowledge, just a vast, incomprehensible weight of _knowing_. She thought she'd faint at the wave of brain-crushing information.

His blood curdling scream her brought her back to reality, and suddenly Lina was back in the real world. Her hands were tied behind her back, not to mention another length wrapped around her arms and torso and a third on her feet, and she had been stuffed feet fist into one of the vaults. If the door closed, she'd be trapped. But what had her attention was the figure of 'Dave', flailing about on the floor. His hands clutched his head as he sack of stolen lacrima sat on the floor next to him.

Lina tried to wiggle out, but she cursed when she realised the rope was caught or tied on something.

"Lina!" she looked up from her struggle at the call, seeing a battered and bleeding Macao standing at the door. He deflated with relief. "You're okay. Thank god."

She glared at him. "I'm tied up, in an iron box I can't get out of, I'll suffocate if the door closes, I can't free myself because my smallest spell that can be cast in a here will burn _me_ in this little thing as well, and the guy who was going through my brains to look at my most powerful spell is lying on the ground screamin-" the screams ceased. "Was lying on the ground screaming." She corrected herself, "A little help?"

"Right, right." Macao began to walk towards her, but paused. Lina's mouth opened to question him, but she fell silent when she saw why. The tip of a slender red blade stuck from his chest.

"Macao!" it was her turn to call out. The mage fell, revealing 'Randal'. He pulled the weapon clear as Macao fell.

Stepping over his victim, the thief strode quickly over to his companion. "I do not know what you did to him, but whatever it was sent mental screams through his mind-link with me. I'd be unconscious were it not for that." He informed her as he picked up the sack. A pair of red streams shot out, assisting 'Randal' as he picked up the now limp, unconscious mind mage.

"I'm going to find you, and reduce you to a dirty smear on the wall!" she screamed at him, eyes dark with anger.

The thief paused. "I understand your anger. He will live, if you can get him medical attention. I have no desire to be a murderer, but sometimes desperate measures must be taken." She paused, staring at him. Was his voice really...regretful? He dropped something to the ground. "Use that." Before she could look, another voice called out.

"That's what people say to"-cough-hack- "justify their actions when they know what they're doing is wrong." They both looked towards the voice. Macao was leaning against the wall, flames burning in his hand. "**Purple Talon!**"

It missed the sack by barely an inch, 'Randal' leaping to the side. Before Macao could pull it back, the fiery hand hit the door to the vault Lina was stuffed in. Time seemed to freeze as it began to close with horrible, tortuous slowness. Panic showed on Macao's face as he realised what would happen if it closed. It was designed to resist magical attack, and if it close he'd never get it opened.

For most people, there would be a moment of hesitation as they realised that saving their comrade would mean letting the thief get away. Most would decide to help their friend, but there would still be that moment of recognition. Macao didn't spare it a thought as his burning claw grasped the door, slowing it but unable to stop it. The vault doors had been designed to not only resist magic, but to dissipate magic which touched it. Cursing, Macao threw himself across the room, trying to reach the door in time. Lina struggled and shouted as she tried to get out.

As he sprinted from the room with his fellow thief and the stolen lacrima, 'Randal' paused and turned for a moment. Indecision filled him, but in the end-

"Out here, on the left! The one who knows the code is on the left, in the green coat, hidden by the rods!" he called back, before running again.

The vault door slammed shut, and Lina's calls were cut off. "Damn!" Macao turned, hearing the thief's words again. He coughed blood as he ran into the next room. With a wave of his hand a whip of purple fire slammed into the containment rods. Several snapped, and the illusion of broken lacrima faded, replaced by a pile of unconscious men. On the top was a man in a green coat. Macao lifted him and shook him. "Wake up!"

After a moment, the man came too. "Agh, wha- THEIVES!" he struggled.

"No!" Macao shouted at him. "I'm from Fairy Tail, here to help. My partner has been trapped in one of the vaults! We have to get her out, now!"

The man stared at him owlishly for a moment then nodded dimly. "Ah...right."

Macao didn't wait any longer, dragging the man and throwing him in front of the one Lina was in. "Open it!" he coughed blood again, but ignored it, "Fast!"

"A-ah, r-right" The dazed researcher stared at the vault for a second before his brain clicked into place. Things were very confusing, but he could hear the muffled sound of something thrashing about inside his vaults and habit took over.

After a tense twenty seconds of twisting, tapping and clicking, the door opened and Lina was able to breathe again. Leaning down to look in, Macao met Lina's eyes, relief mirrored in both.

"Good, you're alright." Macao smiled vaguely at her then folded in on himself.

"Untie me, you idiot! I need to heal him!" she shrieked at the man in the green coat.

"Ah, right, ok."

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Thanks for the lift." Gourry waved back at the retreat cart.

"Not a problem, young man! Give your young lady my best wishes! Gurhahah hahah hahah!" the odd little old man called back. Gourry's face went red at the man's assumptions, taking the fact he'd said he needed to catch with his partner Lina, 'a red-haired girl with a short temper, you'll know if you meet her.' His hurried explanation that he just needed to catch up, because she was with this other guy was cut off before he could finish 'other guy who's our guide.' It had, all round, been a highly distressing ride.

"Glad they were passing at the time." He said to himself as he approached the building. '_And he even knew where this place was! How lucky!'_

The door burst open and a man in a burnt, damaged suit, carrying a larger unconscious man on his shoulder that was supported by glistening red cables. In one had he held a blood-red sword-cane, in the other a large sack. Gourry and the man stared at each other.

"Are you stealing that?" Gourry asked, pointing at the sack.

Caught entirely off guard, the man nearly said "Ye- what! Uh, no, now get out of the way."

"I don't think I believe you." Gourry said, drawing his sword.

"I don't have time for this!" the thief roared. His blade curved through the air. "**Blood Crescent!**"

Gourry ducked the scarlet slash, charging as he did so. His new sword shot out, slicing through the sack's top. The thief made a distressed sound as the sack fell, but was forced away as Gourry turned his attention his enemy. He didn't try blocking Gourry's attacks after the first. The sheer strength in it sent vibrations up his arm. He swore viciously at his opponent's skill. '_I can't keep fighting, not drained like this. Damn, we should have gotten our pieces back from Nate before coming.'_

"Damnation! You fools will doom us all!" he snarled at the swordsman. "I won't forget this, _peasant!_" His blade's point was held right between his feet. A bloody rune flared up beneath him. "**Blood Plate.**" He winced as a large amount of blood poured out, forming a disc beneath him.

Gourry tried to close with him before the thief could do anything more, without moving the thief shot away. The disc sped along, a few inches above the ground. The thief spared a moment to glare at the fast distant figure of the blond swordsman. "I will not forget." He muttered to himself.

Watching until the thief he was too far to see anymore, Gourry turned back to the sack. Glittering crystals, ranging in colour from light blue to teal and dark purple to a lighter violet filled it. He picked it up, and for want of anything better to do, strode inside, calling out.

"Lina? Macao? Zelg- wait, he's not here. Liiiiiina?"

"_Recovery._" Light formed in a bubble over Macao, Lina's hands pressed against his chest. When the light faded, she cast it again. "_Recovery._"

"Uh, he seems mostly healed now." The man in the green coat pointed out. Lina glared at him and he shut up.

After a moment, she stopped her casting. "I had to be sure I healed everything on the inside. I'm not all that good at healing, so I wouldn't be sure. Over-casting Recovery on a human doesn't have any negative side-effects, the magic just dissipates when it finds nothing to heal." Lina rubbed her eyes, suddenly very tired.

"You okay?" Gourry asked from his seat nearby. After he had finally found them, they had been led to the medical office. The doctor, since it always paid to have one on hand when doing dangerous experiments, had become fascinated with her White Magic. Once he was woken up, of course.

"Yeah, just a bit...exhausted. I did spend most of the day carrying myself and Macao with Ray Wing and just cast Recovery half a dozen or so times...I forget how many exactly. I hate White Magic." She muttered.

"Hate it?" the doctor looked up from where he was busy looking over Macao, making sure he really was healed. "But...but you can use magic to heal!"

"Meh, I'm better at the more...explody magic." Lina explained.

The doctor made a dismissive sound. "Anyone can use destructive magic, anyone can destroy, but to create, to heal, is beautiful thing." He said grandly, a serious look on his face. "It is a lost art, though I understand that a long time ago there were a number of healing magics available. Where, might I ask, did you learn yours?" his expression intent.

Lina shrugged. "Back home. Trust me; it's not somewhere you can reach."

He frowned, but accepted that for now. "Well, from what I can tell he's all fixed up." He picked up a lacrima lens and activated its magic. After some inspection of Macao's insides, he nodded, impressed. "And no internal bleeding. He should be fine when he wakes up in the morning. Will there be any side-effects from your magic?"

The sorceress sighed in relief. "Well, he'll probably be really tired. I can't use anything stronger then Recovery, which uses both our energies." With a groan, she stood up. "Now, you've got your lacrima, everyone is alive, I want to sleep." She demanded.

The man in the green coat led her and Gourry to a room upstairs, set aside for those nights when a researcher was just looking for a quick nap. They weathered the thanks of those few researchers still present as they walked through the small complex.

Closing the door behind the man in the green coat, Lina threw herself onto one of the two beds and quickly wormed her way under the blanket, pausing only to remove her cape and shoulder-guards.

Glancing at Gourry as he removed his armour and, to her mild embarrassment, his shirt before getting in the other bed, Lina finally asked "So, how did you get here so fast anyway?"

"Well, the train was going along slowly and I was reading Swords Swords Swords. There was a knock on the window, and it turned out to be this odd little old man with really long whiskers who had a cart without horses that he said coul-"

"Never mind!" Lina rolled her eyes. "Tell me in the morning."

Gourry, being a very manly man who cut things with his magic sword, most certainly did not pout. But on someone who was not a very manly man who cut things with his magic sword, it would probably be considered a pout in response to being cut off. "You're the one who asked."

"Whatever, I'm trying to sleep."

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Your uncle is possibly, and I mean this from the bottom of my cold, stony heart, the most unhelpful person alive."

"Mr. Zelgadis! Don't say that!" Amelia cried as tears built in Okura's eyes.

The chimera sighed. "It is one of the most true things I've ever said." He muttered, starring at the unintelligible map that seemed to be hand-draw and littered with something written in a language that you probably need an advanced degree in linguistics and geologically to understand.

"How could he say such a thing!" Okura shouted, wailing loudly.

"Dammit, stop being loud." He hissed at the delivery girl.

"It's so sad!" she threw herself at Amelia and Zelgadis noted with alarm that the princess seemed to be gearing up to join the girl.

"Please, don't." He was far too dignified to beg, even to save himself from a cave-in.

"B-but you said..."

"Well its true." He glared at them. "I mean, _look _at this!"

Okura wailed again and managed a watery; "It's not that."

He gave them a blank look. "What?"

"Mr. Zelgadis, don't be so negative about yourself! Your heart isn't stony!" Amelia cried. He stared; jaw dropping open.

"It isn't cold either!" Okura added wetly. "Why, it's only been a day or two and already I can see your heart burns with passion!"

"Burns. With passion." He said dully. Zelgadis covered his eyes with one hand and groaned '_Why me?_'

They nodded in union, tears vanishing as the combined sheer optimism and goodwill filled the tunnel like poison gas. Although less deadly, in this case. For once, Zelgadis found himself wishing Xellos was around. For one thing, the Mazoku would probably die from a case of deadly goodwill and for another he could distract them by pointing out that clearly Xellos needed more help than he did, being an ancient, evil creature that had slain thousands of dragons, at the very least, and probably spent his free time eating kittens.

"You just have to believe in yourself!" they chorused.

"Oh Ceipheed..." he glared at them much more harshly now. "Are you two going to keep this up for long?"

"Only until you start being more positive about yourself." Okura supplied cheerfully. When someone asks how long you were going to keep doing something, you knew it was working.

"Fine" Zelgadis snarled. "I'm not a cold, formal, uptight sorcerer who sometimes _freezes annoying girls when they keep annoying me._" He said the last part very directly, very intently.

Their expressions froze, and after the moment of trying to meet his stare nodded hurriedly. "Sounds like he's chipper to me!" Okura said nervously.

"Yes, I think Mr. Zelgadis is more at home with himself now." Amelia agreed.

Waiting a few more seconds, watching the girls get nervous, he finally relented. "Alright, now you're both back to your senses, what exactly are we going to do with this?" he brandished the map.

Okura snatched it out of the air. "Hmm," She hummed as she inspected it for a minute. Eventually, she said "Oh, I see! This isn't a map!"

"Really, what is it?" it had certainly _looked_ like a map to Zelgadis.

"Uncle wrote over an old picture. I remember this one! It was my attempt to draw our house." She happily informed them.

"_That_ was meant to be your house?" Zelgadis asked, appalled.

"It could use a bit of...work." Amelia admitted reluctantly.

"Oh, its shit." She said words completely at odd with her tone. "But I _think _Uncle wrote; 'I can't find any maps, so I'm going to a mage guild in -' I can't quite make it out 'I have heard good things about them, and I have been told they possess a large library with many, so I am sure they will be able to help. Do not worry, I have asked Omto to keep putting food out!' Well, that's good!" Okura beamed at them. They had begun to continue down the bland tunnel, crisis over.

"Guild? You mean one of those organisations you told us about?" Amelia asked.

"Yep."

"I guess that's something."

"We shall just have to valiantly soldier on, fuelled by our trust in justice!" Amelia declared loudly, prompting Okura to cheer for no reason other than to cheer.

Zelgadis sighed. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, he noticed. "Please, would you two be qu-"

"Yes: justice! So long as we hold justice in our hearts, we can never go wrong!"

"Yay!"

"Amelia, it dangerous to be lou-" the chimera tried.

"But to hold justice in our hearts, we must always, always be kind and compassionate!"

"Ya-"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP BEFORE YOU BRING THE WHOLE DAMN TUNNEL DOWN ON US!" Zelgadis finally lost his patience, roaring at them. The girls were cowed into silence, mouths dropping open as they stared at him. Drawing in a breath, Zelgadis closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Blissful silence greeted him. "Good, now if we could-"

_Craaaaaack!_

As dust started to fall over them and the rumble of collapsing stone filled the tunnel, Zelgadis stayed still for a moment, dying on the inside.

"Mr. Zelgadis, RUN!"

The trio began sprinting as the cave fell in on itself.

'_I hate this world._'

Zelgadis repeated to himself as he ran, focusing on just that manta and running.

Twenty minutes later, they finally came to stop. They seemed to have gotten out of the danger zone, and at some indistinct point the tunnel had become a more circular, rough, natural shape.

Panting, Zelgadis rested with his back pressed against a stalagmite. Watching the girls catch their breath, he _knew_ what would come up soon. This whole wretched chain of events wouldn't be finished without.

"Geeze –pant- Zel, you need to keep your voice -pant- down." Okura observed with near-villainous perkiness.

"I will -pant- turn you into a -pant- _frog_. I will -pant- then sell you to a -pant- magic lab -pant- if you don't shut up right -pant- now!" he threatened, vaguely waving a fist in what he hoped would be taken as an angry way.

"Don't be so -pant- mean." She whined.

Amelia had managed to recover faster, no doubt thanks to the excellent physical training her father had recently been convinced was required by all growing young ladies (ignoring for a moment the fact she was now eighteen) by a travelling salesman she was almost certain was evil. The Princess wondered a bit further down the tunnel, where it seemed to widen out. Her own light spell floated along next to her. She peeked out.

"U-uh, M-Mr. Zelgadis?" she said.

"I'll stop being mean when you start not being useless." He didn't notice, growling at Okura.

"Well, I never!" the delivery girl puffed up in righteous anger.

"Please, guys?" Amelia tried again.

"Never? I highly doubt that. I'd be surprised if you can go a day without being told you're annoying!"

"Oh, you big meanie! Otmo doesn't mean it when he says that!"

"I've heard it said ignorance is bli-"

"Guuuuuys!" Amelia's cry broke through to them.

"What?" both turned, glaring at her.

She pointed miserably through the tunnel, and for a moment they didn't understand what they were looking at.

The Deep Earth Wyvern roared at them, light reflecting from its near-black scales. It arms, far thicker, longer and tipped with stronger, flatter digging claws, possessed vestigial leathery flaps that were all that remained of the wings of its ancestors. The beast snarled at the three intruders into its domain.

"Wyvern!" Okura squealed in delight. "I've only ever seen baby ones when the carnival is in town! I think I saw one like this, a Deep Earth Wyvern they're called. Wow, I never thought I'd get to see a full grown one..."

The creature glared at them through tiny red eyes, sniffing at the air.

"Tell me." Zelgadis asked softly. "Are they aggressive?"

"Only if they catch you in their territory." She reassured him.

"And if we happen to be in its territory?"

"It'll kill and eat us." The delivery girl answered cheerfully.

The monstrous creature seemed to have finished its inspected. With another roar, it lunged for Amelia, jaws open wide.

"_Dug Haut!_" Zelgadis slammed a hand onto the floor as Amelia leapt away from the Wyvern's chomping mouth. Half a dozen stone spikes burst from the ground around the beast, slamming into its scales. The rock shattered, barely denting the thick natural armour. "Damn. Amelia, try Fire, I'll do Air." He named two other schools of Shamanism Magic. Matching actions to words, he intoned another spell. "_Dimil Arwin!_"

A ball of high-pressure air launched from his hands, knocking the wyvern back. Snarling, it regained its feet only for Amelia to attack.

"_Bam Rod!_" A whip of fire rolled from Amelia's hand, which she brought slashing into the wyvern's side. It howled in pain, and Amelia ceased her attack as it backed away, hissing. "I think it's leaving and...I feel a bit guilty."

"Guilty?" Zelgadis asked, studying the slowly retreating animal.

"I'm _whipping_ it." She wailed.

Zelgadis bit back his voice before he said something he'd regret. He missed being on his own. "If it makes you feel better, use a different spell. It tried to _eat _you."

"Well, yes, but that doesn't mean I should-" Exactly what it didn't mean she should do was cut off as the wyvern began to thump the ceiling. It seemed to Zelgadis it had a smug look on its scaly face.

"What's it..."

_Craaaaaack!_

"Oh, shit."

"Mr. Zelgadis!" Despite the fact a large, scaly lizard-beast was trying to bring the cave down around them, Amelia still found time to reprimand the chimera over his language.

"Later, Amelia." He muttered as he grabbed Okura and pushed the Princess ahead of him. "When we aren't about to die. _Dug Haut!_" Spikes erupted around them in a ring as a massive fragment fell from the ceiling, supporting it for long enough for them to clear the cave they had been in.

Entering the wyvern's area, they discovered it too be far larger. They had been in what seemed to be an alcove connected to the tunnel. This cavern possessed a higher ceiling, and was wider on all sides. The floor was covered in stalagmites, many broken. Several other tunnels led off from it, into darkness. The wyvern ceased its banging; hissing as it saw its prey's scent escaped the attempt at crushing them.

With a howl it lumbered towards them, sniffing at the air. It hissed murderously.

"Mr. Zelgadis; let's try a Fire spell together." Amelia suggested as they dodged between stalagmites, the wyvern stomping after them.

"Right, aim for its chest." He agreed. "Okura, count it. On three."

"One," Zelgadis thought through his spells, preparing his mind to cast.

"Two." Chaos Words formed in her mind.

"Three!" Okura shouted for them.

They spun, hands reaching out.

"_Rune Flare!_"

"_Flare Lance!_"

Twins spears, the first formed of pure mystical fire energy, the other of physical flames, burst from one set of stone-dotted blue hands and one set of smooth skinned lady's hands. They met in the beast's chest, and they had to shield their eyes. The wyvern shrieked in pain as it scales were seared through. Crashes and cracks filled the cavern as it fled, whining in pain, smashing into walls and stalagmites in its rush to get away.

Listening to it flee, to the chorus of sounds, the three lost travellers waited for a few minutes until the sounds faded.

"Well, wasn't that fun?" Okura beamed at them.

'_I hate this world._'

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Well, that was fun." Macao said as they wandered out of the building, richer for nearly dying. "Thanks for the healing, by the way. You sure you're fine?"

"Meh, I'm good." Lina reassured him. "It wasn't too much, not for a sorceress of my capacity." She added smugly.

"Mhmm," Macao waved a hand at her and her...vehicle. "And you're riding Gourry because...?"

"She's lazy." Gourry grumbled. Lina, the benefactor of an unwilling piggyback, smacked him on the head.

"It's because" she said primly "while it wasn't _too much_, it was tiring enough that I deserve not to have to walk."

Macao nodded in understanding. "Ah, right. You're lazy."

"Oi!" the two men laughed. After a moment she sighed and stopped glaring. "So, what now?"

The older mage considered that. "Well, we've been paid, we've got an idea of what happened before we arrived-" 'Randal' entering, not sneaking but striding through the front door, bluffing his way all the way to the room before the vault on sheer aristocratic authority before dropping a magical bomb that knocked the whole witless building unconscious. "-you've avoided explaining why the telepath was screaming on the ground while you were tired up-"

"I barely know myself!" she protested vehemently. It was true; she didn't understand what had happened. It was like there was an idea hovering at the back of her brain, at the edge of her eye, as it were. Every time she tried to focus on it, it shied away. Gold. That was the key, she was certain of that. Shining gold light.

He continued without apparently hearing her. "-having wet yourself."

Lina went red, head darting around to make sure no one on the road had heard him. She hadn't realised until she'd woken up, and promptly vowed to reduce the mind mage to a thin vapour. _'No one uses magic to make me wet myself! NO ONE DAMMIT!' _"Shut up! I told you, he did it with his magic!"

Macao held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I said I believe you. You don't seem the incontinent type." He chuckled at her expression.

"...I'm not sure I want to have you on my back." Gourry murmured worriedly.

"Jellyfish!" Lina whooped him one on the skull again. "Let's not forget dunderhead here was given a lift by someone who _luckily_ passed by Gourry's cart, _fortunately _guessed someone might need a ride and _coincidently _knew exactly where the research place was."

"When did requests get this complicated?' muttered Macao. He indicated his current state – i.e. without his usual coat. "I liked that coat too."

"Pfft, stop whining. I saw at your place, you've got like ten more of 'em." Lina waved a hand dismissively. The train station came into sight as they turned a corner. Lina was getting a few odd looks, riding on Gourry, but she either did not notice or completely ignored them. "I'd guess we got caught between two groups, either dark guilds or underground. You heard what the idiots back there said: there was a trip wire none of them remember setting that saved the day the first time. Obviously whoever was trying to stop the thieves knew that actually saying anything to the researchers would work against them, with a mind reader." The entered the station, seeing a train sitting, ready to go.

They ceased conversing for a minute while Macao got the tickets for the train to the next town, near the monsters and location of 8 Island. He had to chase after Lina and Gourry, who were busy trying to consume every morsel in the station cafe, because the train they had noted coming in was the train they needed to get on. One quick Ray Wing and Lina pulled open the door on the back of the last cart while her companions groaned and pulled themselves to their feet.

"Hi." She grinned at the surprised ticket taker, "Nearly missed the train. He's got the tickets." She jerked a thumb back at Macao and strode past him. "Good to see you again Arnold, by the way."

_**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Well, that's that chapter done with. Hope you enjoyed it. Again, credit to InuOtaku911 and DragonSword35d for 'Randal's' Blood Manipulation Magic. 'David's' magic is partly my own, partly based on the Telepath discipline of the Psion Class in D&D 3.5 and Psionics Unleashed, the Pathfinder version from Dreamscarred Press.

Nothing else really, hope you enjoyed it, like I said.


	6. Chapter 6

Here's chapter 6! Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for the reviews all. You are more than welcome to come along and boost my ego whenever you please, I don't mind!

Info:

_Slayers Magic_

**Fairy Tail Magic**

'_Thoughts.'_

"Talking."

"This. Is. _Emphasis._"

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

"Has Sir ever gone Sir-on-one with a troll?" the peculiar goblin butler inquired politely in a polished voice as a massive, pot-bellied creature, an uprooted tree in one hand and an expression of idiotic belligerent plastered on its face emerged from the gate behind him. It stood at least nine or ten feet tall, and its sickly pale skin was stretched over an unhealthily thin frame, ribs and bones almost pressing through its skin; except for its bizarrely fat, swollen, protruding stomach. Thick square teeth, with many a gap between them, filled its mouth and its rarely used head, employed more often for hitting things than anything else, was hairless. The whole thing was hairless, in fact. Only a dirty loin cloth over its crotch provided any decency, if such a word could be used to describe anything to do with trolls.

Macao gulped "Uh, not any that big." It was true, he'd fought hill trolls. This one must be a mountain troll, from what he'd heard of the things. Bigger, meaner, stupider, most certainly uglier and far, far tougher.

"I am most pleased to hear Sir has some knowledge." Gillikins smiled pleasantly. "I am certain Sir will dazzle us all. I do so hope Sir enjoys this meagre entertainment while my master courts Sir's young lady companion. I must say, he does seem most smitten with her." The goblin winked knowingly at Macao before retreating to the trees. "I shall oversee this surely brief event. I do wish Sir luck, though I am of course sure that Sir will not require it." Try as he might, Macao could detect no sarcasm or mocking in that sincere voice. '_God, this mission is getting weirder every minute.'_

Staring up into the monster's beady little eyes, Macao really wished he had let Lina blow up the hill fort like she had suggested hours ago.

_Yee olde flashe Backee (with extra Es for your reading pleasure!)e! Or just- _

**Meanwhile, several hours ago!**

"I say I just blast the damn thing into bits with a Dragon Slave from here and we pick through the rubble!" Lina argued as they stared at the hill fort, a squat, crude, ugly construction. Having arrived via a hired coach from the nearby town in the area they had met the mayor of the small village who had sent out the request. The matter had apparently become worse, and thus the payment larger. Lina had nearly screamed for joy when she heard that.

"I...don't think that's a good idea." Macao said, laughing worriedly. '_If Fairy Tail can get at least one person with a reputation of not blowing things up, it would be great._' He thought. "The mayor did ask that we find out what caused the trolls to build a fort."

Lina nodded. "Yeah, that's why I said 'pick through the rubble.' Duh."

Her partner nudged the sorceress. "I think we should go with Macao on this, Lina."

She rolled her eyes. "Alright, since you're both so dedicated to _not _blowing it up? Jeez, a girl tries to have a little fun..." she wondered down the hill they were watching the fort from. Around them a relatively pleasant forest, if you discounted the trolls and various other menaces, was spread over foothills. Built on the tallest hill in the area, back against the mountains that reached up behind them, the fort was...hideous. "Whoever designed that deserves to be blown up, at the very least." Lina called back.

Macao winced as he studied the structure, if it could be called such. "I'd have to agree with you on that." It seemed to be built of tree trunks torn right out of the ground, with their branches snapped off and then somehow glued together with something. They only had second hand information on that fact, from the few villagers brave enough to get close. A single, massive uprooted tree stood in the middle of the walled fort. "Well, no use just standing here. Any ideas?"

Lina brightened up. "Oh, well, if you can't think of anything maybe you could just let me-"

"_Except _blowing it up." He interrupted her.

She scowled back at him. "Fine" She said with exaggerated care. "Let's just go up to one of the guards and ask 'oh Mr. Big nasty troll, can you please tell us who organised you into something other than a bunch of idiot thugs?'" Lina said it in a mockingly sweet voice, dripping with poisonous honey, "How about that?"

Macao just raised an eyebrow at her. "I _have_ got a son you know, not to mention just being an adult when Natsu and his lot were kids, I do know how to deal with brats."

"You wouldn't dare." Lina taunted him.

The older mage coughed. "Of course I wouldn't, after all, you're a grown, mature adu-" he slapped a palm with his fist in false remembrance. "Oh, wait my mistake. First you wet yourself, now you're acting like a brat. Are you _sure _you're an adult?"

Lina became inarticulate with anger and embarrassment for a moment. When she finally found her voice, undoubtedly in some dark place hoping to remain hidden so it would not be force to say such nasty thing, she spat "You mention that one more time, old man, and guild or no I'm sending you to the moon!"

"Making me explode won't change the truth." Macao retorted cheerfully.

"IT'S NOT THE TRUTH!" Lina shouted angrily, waving her fists in the air as she did so.

Gourry just took a seat to watch the shouting match, although it was less of a match since Macao wasn't shouting as well.

A glint of light from the top of the large tree-tower in the middle of the fort went unnoticed.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"What beauty!" Folik Van Mansnipit watched the fiery red-head, shouting at her older companion. "What passion! I must have her!" short, with greasy hair, an unpleasant odour, a face that looked like it had been the punching bag for the local jocks one times too many in its youth, and a nose so bent you could hang your hat on it, Folik was not anyone's idea of handsome, not unless you included certain sea-floor based creatures. The idea that you should not judge a book by its cover, and thus a person by their appearance, is a very important thing. You should have a look inside to find out what they are really all about. The major problem with this is that on the inside, Folik is largely the same just a tad greasier with a few less lumps on his face.

A polite cough informed him his servant had returned. Turning to his man-servant, Folik smiled happily in a remarkably unpleasant way. He took a standard sign of human happiness and made it the sort of thing you put on posters called for neighbours to start stabbing people with a skin a bit darker. "Gillikins, you must see her!"

"If sir so desires, sir." The goblin, in his smart black butler's outfit, came alongside his employed and glanced through the observation lacrima. "The young lady does indeed appear to possess a most fiery nature, sir."

"Ah, that is just one of the great qualities i see in her! Can you not see, Gillikins? She was meant for me, obviously." He sighed in a sickeningly love-struck way, unseen images playing through his eyes.

"Indeed so sir." There was a moment of silence before the butler continued. "If sir does not mind me asking, sir, how exactly did you come to that conclusion, sir?"

"It's obvious, to a man of breeding and intellect like myself," Folik puffed up. Gillikins most certainly did not mention that most people would assume you would require deep-sea gear to safely breed anything resembling Folik. "Her body, my man, her body!"

"I am most sorry sir, but I do not think I am quite following sir, if sir will forgive my saying so."

Folik swelled with important at the chance to explain. "Not at all, I enjoy educating the ignorant. My fiery beauty, she is pure, free of the filthy taint the rest of the world is so very intent on worshipping." At Gillikins uncomprehending look, Folik threw his arms in the air and sighed dramatically "Her breasts! She does not have great, undignified, uncontrollable mounds that bounce as she walks or get in the way when she works. No, my love possesses the perfect physique, a body that does not flaunt its bloated mammary glands like trophies! She is perfect!"

"I see sir. Sir has a most refined taste, sir." Gillikins murmured. "Shall I, significant pause, make arrangements, sir?"

Folik glanced at his servant for a moment. "Uh, you said 'significant pause' Gillikins."

"Did I, sir? I do so apologise sir. I shall be sure to practice my vocabulary again tonight, sir." Gillikins apologised with a bow.

"I trust you will. And yes, please do...make arrangements. I want her here for dinner tonight." He declared.

"Very good sir, I shall see to it at once." A series of thumps filled the tower. "I believe Chief Big-belch has come as you commanded, sir. Does sir wish me to let him in and bring him to the throne room, sir?"

The ugly man waved a hand at him. "Very well, I suppose I must. These wretched beasts. They're so demanding! First they want food, than they want to have fires to keep them warm at night, now food every _day_, what next? I say, they should be overjoyed to be the starting point of my new kingdom."

"As you say sir; I shall return with Chief Big-belch momentarily." The goblin bowed his way out of the room. Folik followed down the wide stairs that ran along the inside of the tree-tower's walls, circling it. The would-be king sat in what he intended to be a regal way on the crudely carved wooden throne in the room two floors below the observatory, but really just made it look like he was sitting with a stick up his rear. To be fair, considering the location that could very well happen if you went to sit down without looking.

A few minutes later, as the stupid, ugly mountain troll bellowed at him in its own version of an indoor voice, committing random and hateful acts of vandalism against linguistics in the process, Folik couldn't help but let his mind wander off. Off, to dream about the fiery, perfect woman he had seen. Her long, silky red hair. Her passionate, zestful movements. Her delicate, beautiful, _tiny_ breasts.

'_I cannot wait to tell her how perfect her body is.'_

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

Stealthily approaching the fort through the forest, the trio had little trouble dodging the...patrols, for a lack of a better word, of what Macao called 'hill trolls.'

"Thick as a rock," Macao commented. "Of course, that means it's hard to bluff them since they just start hitting things when they don't understand it. Considering how little it takes to confuse the idiot things that tends to happens a _lot_."

"Sounds like a fun bunch. We've got trolls back home, but they're smaller and smarter. Yours don't heal, do they?" she asked, worriedly.

"It's really annoying when they keep regrowing arms you've just cut off." Gourry added.

"Sorry, afraid they do." Both groaned. "But, these ones can't heal if you use fire or acid, or Troll-bane weapons."

The telltale stomping and shouted arguing of a patrol filled the forest and they ducked behind some convenient tall bushes.

"Me smack Slob-bom if he says dat 'gain. Ya unner'stan?" the largest of the trolls shouted.

Another troll, slightly shorter and with a noticeably smaller club, muttered back. Or at least, what passed for troll muttering. Twenty meters away, Lina, Gourry and Macao didn't even have to try to hear.

"Me still think Chief should fill in da cave. How me meant to go nap when a big 'ole leads inna da fort round back?" it asked, a tad sulkily.

"Ya gonna sleep cause me gonna smack ya if ya don't! An' da boss 'spificly said not ta talk 'bout it, so shu' up 'bout da sec't en'rance!" the patrol leader yelled, becoming less coherent by the word, and promptly suited actions to vague words by slapping the sulking troll on the head. It devolved from there.

They looked at each other.

"That's rather...convenient, a bunch of idiot trolls wandering around near us talking about a secret entrance." Lina said suspiciously, not bothering to keep her voice down. The trolls were making far too much of a ratchet fighting. "Think it's a trap?"

Gourry nodded "Yeah. So, we going in?" he asked happily.

"Of course" Lina replied, as if he was asking something completely stupid. Which, in a way he was. Just not the same way as Macao thought.

"Uh, I seem to have missed something. Didn't you just say this was a trap?" he asked them.

"Yeah, it's a trap. So we're gonna spring it." She confirmed.

"And that's makes sense, how?"

Lina rolled her eyes, like she was talking to a child. "We know it's a trap now, so we can prepare for it."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that maybe your _preparation _will involve explosions?" he cocked an eyebrow at her suddenly innocent expression before sighing. "I don't suppose I can convince you this is a bad idea?"

"Nope," The sorceress grinned at him, wagging a finger smugly. "You've already shot down one of my brilliant plans, there's no stopping this one."

Gourry nodded in agreement. "There really isn't. Trust me; Lina's not going to give up now."

"It's _their_ fault for taunting me. As if I'd fall for such a stupid trick! Who do they think I am?" she demanded.

"A random guild mage?" the older mage suggested.

That actually caught her up. Lina made a slight 'oh' noise of realisation. "Guess I'm kinda used to people knowing who I am and going out of their way to trick me."

"You must lead an exciting life." Macao observed as they set out, taking a long, curved route to reach the back of the hill fort.

"A bit," Lina admitted in a marvellous display of understatement. "But mostly hunting bandits with Gourry, occasionally searching interesting ruins, and stuff like that. Meet up with Zelgadis and Amelia, friends of ours, have some fun times."

"Good friends?"

"Best I've had, after Jellyfish here. Zel's a bit broody, especially when we distract him from his search for a cure. Honestly, that guy needs to learn to live a little more."

"Cure?"

Lina waved a hand dismissively. "He got turned into a chimera, part golem and part demon, a while back. He's pretty much obsessed with fixing it, despite the fact it increases his magical ability and means he's immune to most mundane weapons. I'm fairly certain he ages slower now too."

"Lina," Gourry's voice had an uncharacteristic scolding tone. "You know that's important to him."

"I know that Jellyfish, but he's so damn obsess- hey, wait a damn minute!" Lina pointed an accusing finger at her partner. "How the hell are you remembering him?"

Gourry did a far-too-manly-to-be-a-pout pout. "Of course I remember him. Why would I forget Zel?"

"Because you have the memory capacity of a dead jellyfish?" she suggested.

"Hey!"

"It's true! Last time we met up with them you had forgotten who they were! How could you forget Mr. 'Depressing-stony-bastard' and Princess 'Be good and kind to everyone' Amelia?"

The swordsman opened his mouth to reply, but snapped it shut at the last second. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"What is it now?" Lina asked, weary already with this conversation.

"Amelia...Amelia...why is that name so familiar?" he pondered.

"You idiot!"

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"They would appear to have 'taken the bait'; I believe is the phrase, sir." Gillikins reported. "Your young lady appears to have convinced her companions via _tentation per pes_."

Folik's lip moved silently as he ran through that phrase. "'attacking with foot'? Is that right?"

"I believe so, sir. Regrettably, I do not know the word for 'footwear' in the old tongue. I do apologise sir."

"Er, that's fine. So, you mean she convinced them to use the secret entrance you told the trolls not to talk about by hitting them with her shoe?" Folik asked, just to be clear.

"Indeed so, sir."

"Well, that, uh, just proves, uh, that is she is both creative and a natural leader. Yes, that's it!" the greasy little man cried gleefully.

Gillikins nodded in agreement, "Most definitely, sir. On a related note, I believe I should head down to the tunnel, to prepare for your lady's arrival. If sir would excuse me."

"Yes, go. I don't need to fear _you_ making a mistake Gillikins, not a ma- goblin of your calibre." Folik dismissed his servant with a flick of his fingers.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

The secret entrance was a hole in the stone that sheathed the base of the steep hill, a rough hewn tunnel on the far side. What was likely meant to be door, made of logs lashed together, covered it. Outside, a pair of trolls, one light green, the other blue, stood guard. Neither had very big pot-bellies. Hiding behind a handily place fallen tree trunk, they peeked over it at the cave. From inside they could hear the occasional sounds of impatient shuffling and trolls thumping each other for being loud, usually for thumping another troll for being loud. Trolls tended to end up in circular chains like that.

"Well, I think we can safely conclude that however planned this trap is a moron." Lina commented, not hiding her annoyance at someone so stupid trying to trick them.

"No argument here." Macao murmured.

Gourry looked at them, "So, what now?"

A fanged grin slid into place on Lina's face. "This" she purred, like a cat playing with a mouse. "Is where you, Gourry, help me with my genius plan."

The swordsman felt sweat forming on his brow. "Uh, what is your plan?" he asked, alarm bells ringing like gongs of doom in his head. They had a lot of room to echo.

Lina just chuckled darkly, and Gourry suddenly felt the urge to run very far away, very fast.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"Hi!"

The trolls stared at the waving swordsman as he walked carelessly towards them. They weren't entirely certain what to do. Humans normally ran around screaming, or charged at them with weapons. They didn't wander up waving, actually saying things that didn't sound angry. It was a completely new experience.

"Erm, how's your day been?" Gourry asked after a moment of confused silence.

"Go-" the blue one began to say before the other hit him. "Oi, what you do dat for? Grob was on'y answerin' little humie."

Whispering in a voice that carried to the swordsman's hidden companions, the green guard said "You don' talk like dat to da little humies. We s'pposed ta be ambushin' dem!"

"You do know I can hear you, right?" Gourry inquired. The green guard glared at him.

"You be quiet little humie, da boss wants us ta ambush you an' you betta no' cause any trouble for us when we do!" the troll's face wrinkled for a moment. "Urm, was I s'posed ta tell you dat?"

Gourry made reassuring gestures. "I'm sure it's fine. In fact, I came down here to set off your ambush."

The trolls stared at him, and then broke into wide grins. "You a good humie. Grob like you. You wanna drink some grog wid me? I won da best barrel in da clan in da horsie throwin'!"

The green guard frowned again. "Dat sound like fun, but I dink we gotta kill dat humie. Borg sorry." He apologised to Gourry.

He shrugged "Aw, its fine. Thanks for the thought."

"They're getting along famously." Macao remarked from afar.

"Idiot birds of an idiot feather. Would he hurry up and get the rest out of there already!" growled Lina.

Macao looked at her, worry on his face. "Are you sure he'll be fine? I mean it, seriously."

Lina sighed. "Macao, trust me. We've been travelling for long enough that I _know_ Gourry will be alright. Oh, look, I think they're coming out." Indeed, the 'door' had open – more accurately, fallen over – and about nine more trolls had emerged. Unlike the two Gourry had been chatting up, these were darker shades of brown and spotted with rocky crags. They also had a substantially higher amount of muscle.

"I think so those are rock trolls." Macao muttered. At Lina's glance, he hurriedly added "they should still be vulnerable to fire. I don't know much, never fought them before. You'd have to ask Miki back at the guild, I think she knows about animals."

"Miki?"

"Miki Chickentiger, the one with the bird."

Lina nodded, and then paused. "Wait, _Chickentiger_?"

"Yeah?"

She shook her head. "That is a _weird _name. Seriously. Pfft, _Chickentiger_." She sniggered. "Oh, damn, better get casting." Lina leapt up, hands parallel. "_Oh Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, let thy power gather in my hand._" A sphere of red light began to form behind her hands. "_Fireb-_" she fell silent. "Ow." She fell to her knees.

"Lina, what's wrong?" Macao stood, alarmed. He noticed the dart pinning her cape to her back at about the same time he heard a whisper of breath. He dropped to the ground, and the dart meant for him struck the log. "**Purple Wall**" A wave of violet fire sprung from his hand, forming a shield around them. Shouts came from the direction of Gourry, and when Macao glanced over he was greeted by the sight of Gourry fighting off nine rock trolls. Grob and Borg sat by the cave, both watching sulkily.

"Sir is most impressive, I must say." A polite voice called through the fire, completely without menace. It gained an apologetic tone. "But I am most terribly afraid that sir has underestimated me."

"Wha-" something burst through the flame wall, slamming into his chest. Blood burst from his mouth as he was launched into the air. He crashed into the ground on the other side of the log, gasping desperately. His chest hurt like hell.

"I am sorry, sir. But you left me little choice." Looking up, Macao's vision was filled by a green, three fingered claw, reaching for his head. "I will endeavour not to do any permanent damage to sir's skull."

Something struck Macao, and he knew no more.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"Is sir conscious? Ah, I see sir's eyes are opening. I am most pleased to see sir is relatively unharmed." The refined, heavily polished voice did actually sounded pleased.

Groaning, Macao pulled himself up. He seemed to be lying in the dirt, surrounded by...wood? Looking around, he groaned.

"Is sir displeased to be in good health?"

Now, he focused on the source of the voice, "A goblin?"

The goblin, in all his butlery glory, bowed, "Most perceptive of sir. I am Gillikins." He even had white gloves on now.

"This is...unexpected. Wait; are you the one who hit Lina with the dart? And...what did you throw at me?" Macao got to his feet, glaring at Gillikins. The odd butler stood, as all his kind did, roughly five feet in height, although unlike most he did not hunch constantly. Pointed, razor teeth filled his mouth, and bright yellow eyes gazed at the mage.

The goblin was unperturbed. "It was indeed, sir. I do apologise for my barbaric use of a thick log, but I required a method to remove sir from his protection. Quite a fierce flame I note, sir. It burnt the first dart I tried to send through it to ash! I am led to understand it kept burning until the magic had run its course. A moment's notice and you create a shield of fire that burns for an hour!" he bowed again.

"Where are we? Where's Lina? What happened to Gourry?" the mage demanded of the goblin, a purple flame appearing cupped in his hand.

Gillikins motioned up and around them, prompting Macao to look up. It looked like they were in a pit, lined with logs and topped with sharpened stakes. "This, sir, is 'the pit'. I believe Master Folik wished to call it his 'Grand Arena', but alas the trolls are simple creatures."

"So are goblins." Macao retorted. "What about my friends?"

"I understand the young lady is Lina, and the swordsman is Gourry. Would sir be so good as to tell me her family name? For the wedding, I mean." Gillikins inquired politely.

"No way in- wedding? What wedding?" the mage stared at the butler, completely lost.

The goblin nodded. "Ah, of course, sir would not know. You see, sir, Master Folik was observing the three of you when you watched from the hills, and was immediately smitten with the young lady. Very romantic, I am sure." He explained. "He was most enchanted by her bust, to be painfully blunt sir."

"What, Lina's? Are you sure?" It was a good thing Lina wasn't around to hear the incredulity in his voice.

"Oh yes, sir."

"Uhh, has he actually checked if she wants to get married to him?" he felt he already knew the answer.

"I understand Master Folik believes she will be more than happy to agree." The goblin informed him. Something in his posh voice told Macao the butler was fully aware of the flaws in that particular piece of deduction. The mage wondered if the goblin had pointed any of them out to his master.

Macao tried again. "He's not...mad, or anything is he?"

Gillikins considered this for a minute. "No, no, I do not believe so. At least, not the traditional definition of madness. I understand he is quite repelled by large bosoms. Master Folik simply cannot wait to declare his love for her and her, I quote him here sir; 'beautifully petite chest', sir."

Macao paused for a moment, face not moving. "You mean...he's going to say that to her? To her face?"

"Yes sir." The goblin confirmed, eyeing his captive curiously.

"Snrk," Macao clamped a hand over his mouth. He had heard about what had happened the last time someone had done that from Natsu, and Gourry had endless such tales. He was suddenly glad to be far from Lina's current location. "Tell me." He managed eventually. "What about Gourry?"

"The swordsman, in an impressive display of skill, managed to defeat the five of the rock trolls while I conveyed you and Mistress Lina into the fort. When I returned, the remaining rock trolls were also unconscious. Fortunately, however, the two hill trolls managed to strike a lucky blow."

"So you've captured him." It wasn't a question.

"Indeed so, sir" Gillikins agreed. "I have allowed Grob and Borg to guard him as a reward. They seem determined to share their 'grog' with him. I do hope he survives. Humans generally find their insides melting when they drink troll grog."

"Ok, just a thing or two and then I'm blasting my way out of here." Macao told him, stretching his muscles. "First; the trap was a double bluff? You assumed we'd guess it was a trap, so you set another trap around the first. We were too focused on how easy to spot the first trap was –" '_being angry in Lina's case.'_ "–that we didn't spot the second."

Gillikins bowed, silently agreeing.

"Right..." Macao considered his next words. "You should know that Gourry is going to take issue with that whole _wedding_ thing. He and Lina kinda have this _thing_."

"Oh, a _thing,_" Gillikins muttered, understanding all too clearly, "How very... unfortunate."

"That is, if Lina doesn't blast this Folik guy into ash. Which, to be honest, is pretty likely." Macao laughed. "You know, she was rather eager to just blow this whole hill and fort into pieces, but I talked her out of it. Wish I had let her do it now."

"Blow up the whole hill? Did I hear sir correctly?" Gillikins asked, worry etched on his face.

"Yep. Now, onto the last part of business; why am I here?"

"Oh, yes." Gillikins slapped his forehead, "How very rude of me. Let me introduce Ironknee. He is most eager to meet you."

And this is about where the mountain troll enters.

_Yee olde flashe Backee Endethe here- _

Macao leapt to the side as the mountain troll brought its club slamming down at him. A whip of purple flames rolled through the air and smacked it in the face.

"RAWR!" it roared, spittle flying down at him. Unnoticed, Gillikins slipped away. He had a _thing_ to put an end too.

"**Purple Rain!**" bolts of fire peppered the monster, eliciting another roar. He barely rolled out of the way of the next attack. In a move of surprising cunning, it didn't lift the club and start smashing down again, but swept it across the ground. "Damn. **Purple Lift!**" his rune flared beneath his feet, and the spurt fire lifted him clear of the attack just in time. Still, he wasn't high enough to get out of the pit and the trolls who had began cheering at the violence looked like they might provide trouble if he got too close. Plus, they had worrying piles of large rocks within reach.

The troll glared at Macao, who was now at about high height. "ME SMASH!" it howled, without thinking about the cliché that such as thing was. It lifted it club again, faster than before.

The thin strand of fire holding Macao aloft twisted and danced desperately as the troll flailed its club madly. "**Purple Cannon!**" Macao fired the burning cannonball into the monster's face, causing it to step backwards. "**Purple Cannon! Purple Cannon!**" two more blasts sent it stumbling into the wall of 'the pit'.

Growling, the troll's free hand slapped down on one of the logs embedded in the wall of 'the pit'. With a few tugs, it pulled the log free and grinned darkly at Macao.

"Ah, fu-"

The log tumbled through the air, propelled by nine feet of mountain troll muscle. The flames under Macao began to move, but he knew it was too fast. He did the first thing that came to him.

"**Purple Inferno!**"

Flames filled the air in front of him, as hot as Macao would make it. No subtlety, no property alteration, just burning everything it touched. Violet fire kept pouring out, filling the space before him. When nothing burst through it and smashed him to a pulp, Macao assumed he'd managed to either destroy or knock back the log.

It was only when howls of pain filled 'the pit' that Macao realised his attack had been stronger than he had thought. Sweat was beginning to form along his brow. In his panic, he'd put far more magic into the blast than usual. He normally used his ability to manipulate the form of his fire, unlike Natsu who he _knew_ was capable of it but simply preferred to just burn as hot as he could go.

'_But I don't have as much energy as Natsu; it's a bad tactic for me._' He reminded himself. Although he had to admit it was working here. Macao let the spell lapse, but by now about a third of the logs embedded in the wall were on fire, as was the earth itself. Magical fire could burn on anything, even materials which should rightly melt. Without the constant stream of fire the troll was revealed again.

Roaring in agony, it was thrashing against the wall and appeared to be attempting to tear the burning flesh from its body. The result was quite messy, and Macao felt his stomach turn. The troll was too stupid to realise _all_ its flesh was on fire. Every inch of the beast was swathed in a layer of violet fire, slowly eating away at it. Soon, the troll had fallen, back against the wall, moaning in pain.

"Damn." Macao muttered. The great stupid thing had been trying to kill him, but it was a hell of way to go. "Sorry about that." He murmured, forming a small orb of intensely burning fire. He slowly approached the troll, but it was obvious the creature could barely move, let alone attack. The orb was only the size of an apple, but it would serve his purpose.

Even a troll's brain would be a vulnerable target. It felt only a tiny prick among the vast swamp of pain that filled what little of a mind it had. Barely noticeable. But, thankfully, the last thing it ever felt.

Macao continued past the slowly burning corpse, ignoring the hoots and howls of the watching trolls, into the crude tunnel his opponent had entered through. He had a butler to find.

Oh, and possibly a wedding if Lina had yet to set fire to the place.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"An den, Grob 'ere drew dat horsie all da way ova da fort, an' it land'd on anuddda horsie! An' we 'ad two horsie stew dat night." Borg concluded his three hour story, which had comprised the entire thrilling journey of Grob working out which way to throw his horse for the horse throwing contest last week.

Gourry applauded. "That" he said with complete honesty. "Was the best story I can remember," Which wasn't hard, with a memory like his.

Borg and Grob grinned at each other, pleased with their story telling ability. It had only taken them three hours to tell a story that happened in the space of ten minutes. They were sitting outside the cell Gourry had been locked in, manacles on his wrists and ankles, chained against the wall. Every few minutes one of the trolls would offer him a drink from a bucket of troll grog. Seeing the increasing thinness of the bucket and the smoke raising out of it, he declined.

"Borg always wins da story'tellin'. He's real good." Grob commented cheerfully.

"I can tell why." Gourry agreed. He frowned. "I don't suppose you guys could let me out now? It's just, Lina is probably in a bad mood, and as much fun as it is hanging around with you, we did agree on it." Seeing their faces drop, he added hurriedly. "It's been great, and I want to do it again. Except, without the manacles," He shook them off and stood, "Even if they are just for show."

"Dat was a good idea I 'ad, was'n it?" Grob asked as he opened the cell. "You be our prisoner, we get to drink da grog, den we let ya go. Ever'one wins." He beamed, pleased with himself and utterly unable to see what sort of problem anyone could have with it. Of course, Gourry wasn't much better.

He nodded along with the trolls. "It was a _great_ plan." He admitted. "I'd never have thought of it myself. I was just going to chop your arms off." he laughed. After a moment of confusion, the trolls joined in on general principle. When they had finished their mirth, Gourry looked around. "I'd better be going before Lina gets mad. See you guys around. If you're ever in Ma-" his face became blank. "Uh, the town where Fairy Tail is, come around and we can do it again."

The trolls nodded and called out good byes, waving as Gourry pulled open the crude door open and stepped. Grob looked tearful. "Grob like Gour." He had trouble with Gourry's name.

Stepping into the light, Gourry paused. "Uh, oops?" he suggested as thirteen pairs of beady rock troll eyes turned to glare at him. They were standing in a vaguely guarding fashion among a collection of crude wood and fur hovels. A massive tree-trunk, shorn of branches and apparently converted into a tower to judge by the windows and balconies, filled a prominent role in the background. The thing about rock trolls that make them great guards is they were much stupider than hill trolls, which meant they could barely talk and, as such, didn't bother with it. You can't talk your way around a rock troll anymore than you could a rock. Rock trolls just hit anything that didn't immediately make sense. Some could be found spending hours beating at a particularly oddly shaped boulder. They roared. They charged.

Gourry's legs tensed, muscles coiling. His shining sword, reflecting brilliantly in the mid-day sunlight, flashed as it swept through the air. The troll nearest him, bearing a crude cleaver in one hand, swung at him. The brilliant blade met the notched relic and kept going. Before the troll knew its weapon had been cut in half, Gourry had stepped into reach and brought his sword cutting through the air, sweeping through its knees. As it began to topple, Gourry leapt onto to stomach, slicing downwards as he did so. He pushed off the corpse backwards, sending it sailing into one of the attacking trolls. Gourry rolled in the air, reaching out with his sword at one of the approaching trolls he was heading directing for. With a cry he slashed straight down, passing through between the bisected monster. On either side of him the contents of the troll's head spilled out.

Landing, he rolled back to his feet. The trolls were surrounding him now, but already two were down. As he had noticed in the fight before, blood never seemed to stick or stain his new sword, simply falling away. Like it refused to be sullied with signs of violence and death.

"KILL!" one of them roared, and the rest took up the chance. Gourry winced, realising they would alert the rest of the fort. '_Oh well, I'd have to fight them at some point._' He rationalised.

As the rock trolls prepared to attack, a voice held them back. "HOLD BACK YOU 'ORRIBLE LI'LE MEN!" it hollered. A goblin in a butler's suit appeared. "I was so hoping sir would be unco- WHAT DID I JUST SAY, YOU 'ORRIBE LIL'LE MAN!" he suddenly roared at a troll who had drawn back an arm to throw its club. "YOU PUT THAT DOWN BEFORE I TWIST OFF YOUR 'EAD AN' MAKE YOU EAT IT!" the troll meekly lowered its arm and dropped the club. Turning back to Gourry, Gillikins smiled. "I do apologise sir. I was on my way here to deal with sir, personally. I would not do something so dishonourable as to have _trolls_, of all creatures, dispose of you."

"Dispose of me?" Gourry asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

Gillikins shrugged, drawing from behind his back a pair of large scimitars. "I have learned that sir and Master Folik's new bride have feelings for each other. We cannot have that, not on the eve of the wedding."

Gourry's forehead wrinkled, "Sir? And he and who have feeling for each other?"

The butler raised an eyebrow. "I mean you, sir, and Mistress Lina."

Now the swordsman pointed to himself. "Me? Lina?" he asked in a tight voice.

Nodding, the goblin began to advance. "Yes sir. Now, if sir would be so good as to grant this small request, please die." The blades slashed out.

And bounced off Gourry's block. A serious look was on Gourry's face now. "I'm not letting you do that." His blade darted out, only barely parried by the goblin and deflected another attack at incredible speed.

"Sir will not let me kill him? I regret to inform sir he is not to be given a choice in this matter." The scimitars danced as Gillikins feinted and tried to land small attacks on his larger opponent.

"No." Gourry launched a vertical attack that was caught on the cross blades, just above Gillikins' head. "There won't be any wedding. Not today!" with a surge of strength he began to force the goblin back.

Gillikins tried to resist, but the sheer power in the man he was fighting was incredible. The man was stronger than a mountain troll, and Gillikins suspected a Sword Master. The skill in those few, brief blows had been great, perfectly balanced and aimed for maximum reach and damage. But the butler did not let this depress him or affect his will to fight. No one said doing your master's will was meant to be easy, did they?

In a daring move, Gillikins withdrew one blade from the stalemate, pushing to the side with the other in the hopes of diverting Gourry from a killing blow while his now free sword flashed out in a disembowelling cut. Gillikins felt pain run through his side as Gourry's shining sword cut a line from the left of his collarbone to his waist, while swaying his body from the goblin's attack. The straight blade in the human's hand shot up in reverse, slicing through suit and flesh, leaving a trail of blood from the centre of Gillikins' waist to his right arm pit.

Not even flinching at the pain the goblin advanced, making a horizontal attack at Gourry's head from the right and a diagonal strike at his legs from the left. Gourry ducked beneath the first while his sword met the left attack and parried it with a _clang! _From there he sent a straight thrust into Gillikins' stomach, narrowly dodged by the goblin leaping away. Gourry didn't relent, following him. It was all the goblin could do to catch the first vertical slice with his right-side scimitar, nearly beyond him to parry the spark raising horizontal strike from the right with his left blade, at the limits of his ability to even save himself from being bisected at the hip from an attack following it and finally the fourth blow slid right through his guard, piercing deeply into his chest.

Gillikins looked at the sword, right where a human's heart would be, in his chest. With a groan, he collapsed. Gourry let his sword droop and the dead weight slide off. He frowned at the body. "Oh, I forgot to ask where Macao and Lina are. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be fine." Returning his clean sword to its scabbard, Gourry turned to go. And remembered the trolls.

They were all starring at him with obvious fear. A few glanced at the dead goblin, but didn't seem able to look for long. Something about killing Gillikins frightened them. Gourry took a step forward, and the trolls took a step back. Pausing, confused, Gourry stared at them and, after a moment's deliberation, took another step forward. The trolls took a step back. He tried to walk quickly a few feet, and the trolls practically fell over themselves getting away. Amidst all the trollish whimpering and sobbing, Gourry tapped his chin. Soon, he stood alone. A pair of trollish heads poked out the door he had exited, Grob and Borg staring with amazement.

"I wonder what's wrong with them?" he asked the world in general.

Suddenly, he jerked, warnings deep in his battle-ready subconscious making him take a rapid step forward even as the trolls opened their mouths to cry out. He still felt something sharp cutting through an unprotected spot on his lower back. He whipped around, weapon in hand almost magically and knocked the black dagger out of Gillikins' three fingered claw. The panting, bloody goblin smirked at him

"I am -pant- afraid that sir wi -hack-" he spat out a mouthful of blood "will find that a goblin's heart is in a differe-pant- different location. It was a-hack- pleasure to serve, sir. I apologise for the indignity in your death." With that, he collapsed.

Gourry looked down at the goblin, and kneeled. This time he really was unconscious, but still alive. "What did he mean?" he wondered, curious. "Ow." The swallow cut in his back was beginning to ache and burn. He glanced at the dagger, embedded tip first in the door of a nearby novel and felt the blood drain from his face as the wood around the blade began to smoke. A single black drop of some evil substance rolled down the blade and a _hiss_ filled the suddenly dead quiet air as it turned the wood black.

"Oh, damn." Gourry said as he felt the strength in his body fading. "S-sorry Li..." the world turned dark around him and Gourry didn't even feel his body hit the ground.

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

It turned out to be a really bad idea to leave Lina in a room made of wood, in a building made of wood, after getting knocked out while in the middle of casting a fire spell. The swamp trolls, being possibly the most intelligent strain of trolls, which meant they might be able to outwit small streams and particularly stupid donkeys, were the only ones allowed to guard inside the tree-tower. The two that were guarding Lina's room were not entirely prepared for the blast of fire that forced the door open for a second that followed the thump of someone falling out of bed.

They looked at each other for a minute, weighting the possibility of being roasted alive if they entered against Gillikins coming along and finding them standing around whistling innocently, an idea swamp trolls had somehow picked up knowing it never worked but did anyway. They settled on peeking through the door.

Opening it a crack, one of them peered in and got a chair leg in the eye for it. "Out of the way, chump!" it fell away, but the other pushed the door open, its crude sword in hand.

Lina grinned at it, a ball of whirling air held in her hands "_Bomb Di Wind!_**" **The blast smashed the door and sent the swamp troll into the wall of the hall outside. The first troll, hands clamped over its wounded eye, only took a second to decide what to do now.

The funny thing about being intelligent is it means you can better work out the odds of winning, compared to the odds of being butchered by the army of small people with weapons. The first swamp troll worked out that though they were very small, humans also tended to operate in very large groups, and while you could squash five the sixth one was probably just behind you with a pike to shove up your arse, a couple jugs of oil and a match. It then decided that the best way not to get killed by humans was to live where they didn't. Hence; swamps.

It was also a stunning orator, by troll standards. But that's neither here nor there.

"Oh, no you don't!" Lina muttered, stepping through the broken door. "_Flare Arrow!_" a bow of fire formed in her hands for a moment before a flaming projectile shot after the fleeing troll. Listening to it cry out, Lina smirked. "Take that, you bastards." She hissed. Patting down her pockets, Lina made sure she still had everything. Her cape and shoulder-guards, along with the very short sword she rarely used, sat on a table in the room she had been sleeping in. Gathering them, Lina set out to discover her kidnapper.

Which she did by laughing madly as she cast Flare Arrow at every troll she saw. Blowing up someone's underlings tended to get their attention. She should know; it certainly got _her_ attention whenever someone attacked Gourry, Amelia or Zelgadis. Not that Lina ever actually said that outright. For reasons she couldn't begin to fathom, they'd probably not take being called her underlings very well. It was a mystery, really.

"I say, who is attacking my tr- Oh! It's you!" the voice, first angry and then joyous, was greasy. That was the only way for Lina to describe it. Greasy, greasy, greasy. A man, rather short and absolutely hideous, fit the word greasy as well. His hair seemed to be lather back in it, and his face shone dirtily as he emerged from the door leading to the stairs, "My dear, how I have waited for this!"

"I ain't your dear, greasy!" Lina snarled at him, waving a fist before demanding. "Were you the one who kidnapped me?"

He nodded a far-away expression on his face. Lina felt the urge to cover up as he looked at her. "I am, and I must apologise for the means by which you were brought here. It was most rude of me. I am Folik Van Mansnipit, future king of this land and you, the future queen!" he declared loudly.

Lina stared, speechless for a moment. "Wha...what?" she finally shrieked. "What?"

Folik didn't seem to notice her expression or the tone in which she had just questioned him. "Yes, my love, we shall rule this land, starting with the army of trolls I am gathering here. Soon, it will be strong enough to invade the nearby towns, and I will be able to begin recruiting trolls and monsters from even further! Until, at last, we shall march to Era and pillage its knowledge to grant us the power to take over WORLD!" he trailed off into villainous laughter.

The sorceress just stared at him before bursting out into laughter. Folik stared at her in confusion. This wasn't how he'd imagined things in his head. She was meant to say how brilliant his plan was and declare her love for him, and possibly comment on how handsome he was. She wasn't supposed to _laugh_. Or fall over laughing, which was just even worse.

"H-hey! You're not meant to-" he protested.

"Ah hahaha! 'Take over the world!' Ahahaha!" Lina wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "I can't believe anyone would actually say that! Bwahahaha! It's so _lame!_" she tried to stop laughing, but it just became hysterical giggling. Lina could barely stand.

After about two minutes of impatient foot tapping on Folik's part, Lina regained control of herself. "Okay, I'm good -giggle-. G-go on" She muffled another fit of giggling.

"Right, well, yes. We'll take over the wor- STOP LAUGHING!"

"Sorry sorry sorry" apologised the sorceress insincerely. "I can't help it! I can't even remember what you said before that."

Folik sighed, but pressed on. "Well, after the wedding, we'll-"

"Woah woah WOAH! Back up there!" Lina cried. "What's this about a 'wedding'?" she asked, making air quotes with her hands as she did so.

"Ours, of course! How else would you become my queen?" Folik completely missed the sudden expression of disgust and nausea that came over Lina.

Her face went dark with anger. "Marry? You? No way!"

This didn't seem to register with Folik for a minute or so. Finally, in a strangled voice, he asked "W-what?"

"Nuh ah! No way! Bzzz, wrong answer! Never in a million years! No way hosay! Take your pick!" she screamed, pointing at him. "Just _look _at you! You're ugly, greasy, stupid, greasy, you smell, you're greasy, and you have a bad taste in clothing! Your robe is so tacky."

"B-b-but, I...I... You're perfect!" Folik cried, eyes wet.

That brought her up short. "Eh?" was all she could manage.

"Y-you have the p-perfect body!" he sobbed.

Lina looked down at herself, and back at him, and her eyes narrowed. "Are you making fun of me?"

"No!" he whined pathetically. "You're beautiful, perfect in every way. Especially your breasts."

Lina's face went red, and now she truly was speechless. This was _new._

"Oh, how I love them! So small and delicate and wonderful!" a lewd expression appeared on his face and he practically spun in delight. Unseen by him, Lina had started to turn a very different shade of red. The angry kind. "I never have laid eyes upon such beautifully tiny breasts, and they set my heart racing." Folik turned back to her, and finally saw something wasn't right. The fact her eyes seemed to be glowing red, for a start.

"Small? Tiny?" she asked in a voice that probably rented out half of the apartments in hell for well above the value and never came around to fix the plumping like it promised. "Tiny? **SMALL? DELICATE?**" the roar bounced through the tree-tower and out the window.

"Hmm?" Macao looked up from the trolls he was pummelling. He chuckled. "I guess he told Lina. I want to see this."

Back in the tower, Lina's glare had become strong enough that it was probably slowly peeling the top layer of skin from Folik's face; or damaging his soul at the very least.

"Y-yes?" he squeaked.

"**YOU'RE DEAD!**" her hands lifted above her, and the light around her turned red and ominous. Power began to gather between her upheld hands.

"_Darkness beyond twilight_"_  
"Crimson beyond blood that flows"  
"Buried in the flow of time"  
"In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness"  
"Let all the fools who stand in our way be destroyed"  
"by the power you and I possess"  
_"_DRAGON SLAVE!_"

*** SlayersXFairyTail ***

"..." Macao stared, slack-jawed, at the remains of the hill itself. His clothing was covered in dirt. The hill was now a crater, the sides rising up and suddenly dipping into the depression formed by the perfect sphere of destruction Lina's spell had created. The burnt remains of the tree-tower and hovels surrounded him. "W-what?" he was, to put it bluntly, dump-founded. He had seen a bright light from the tower, and then a massive explosion. Now, having dug his way from the rubble, the result defied explanation.

...well, he was finding it hard to actually accept that Lina could do _this._ He assumed Natsu had been exaggerating when he described what happened to the dark guild manor, that Lucy was merely being overly-dramatic at yet another explosive conclusion to a quest. Gourry had said she could do things, but, and no offence meant, Gourry was a nice guy and all but he wasn't one to trust where remembering things is concerned.

"Grob got Gour! Grob got Gour!" Macao turned at the odd cry, watching as two mounds of rubble burst into a pair of hill trolls. One of them held a green looking Gourry. The one holding him smiled dimly for a moment, and then noticed something. "Borg, Gour is green! Humies not meant to be green, are dey? Fix 'im!" he thrust Gourry at his companion, apparently named Borg.

Borg shoved him back. "Borg not know how ta fix humies!"

"Grob don't either!" Grob wailed, pushing Gourry at Borg, who pushed him back. As is usual with trolls, this led to a vicious cycle of idiocy.

A whip of purple fire punched Grob suddenly in the face and when he let go of Gourry as he fell wrapped around the swordsman. Pulling his companion back, Macao glared at the two trolls before looking at Gourry with some concern. Rather than just jump to conclusions, he thought about what the trolls had said. These two looked like the ones Gourry had managed to start talking to when they tripped the double-trap. "Are you two friends with Gourry?" he asked.

The trolls grinned inanely and nodded.

"Ok." He stared at them. "What's wrong with him?"

Borg nudged Grob forward, who stepped up reluctantly. "Da boss stabbed 'im."

Macao waited for a moment, but that appeared to be all he was going to get. He sighed "Alright. Was there anything...odd about what he was stabbed with? Was it" he tapped his temple as he thought. "I don't know, black, or dripping, or glowing or something?"

The trolls seemed to ponder this in their own slow way, when Borg suddenly slapped Grob in a trollish sign of realisation. At least, that's what Macao assumed it was when the monster yelled "I gots it!" and began to dig back through the rubble. It emerged a minute later, holding a plank of wood. Embedded in it was black, dripping dagger. It even, Macao saw with a sigh at the world's cliché nature, was shaped with wave curved edges.

"Well, that's just great. Oi, Lina! You out there!" he turned away, shouting loudly.

An explosion from the thick rubble at the centre of the crater answered him. Macao ran a hand across his head at that, shaking it sadly before setting off with Gourry still held aloft by a purple tentacle of fire. The trolls exchanged perplexed expressions before following.

Macao was able to make out some shouting as he got closer, and was eventually able to make out the words. He laughed when he realised what was happening as a number of other explosions filled the air.

"STOP SAYING THAT!" Lina screamed before throwing yet another Fireball at the badly charred Folik.

"But your lovely little bre-"

"STOP IT!" this time she used a Flare Arrow, for variety.

"Having fun?" Macao called when he was closer. Lina's head whipped around and she glared at him. She was distracted from this when she saw Gourry.

"What's up with him? And why are those trolls following you?" she added as an afterthought.

He shrugged as he came to stand next to her, lowering Gourry to the ground. "I think they're friends of Gourry."

Lina rolled her eyes at that. "Of _course_ they are. Honestly, this idiot." So saying, she gave him a light kick.

"Oi, oi, I think he's poisoned." Macao warned her, not wanting her to damage him anymore than he was.

"Tch" She turned her head to the side, sticking her tongue out.

"Don't 'tch' that!"

"Well, it's his fault. Honestly, the idiot." Lina grumbled, getting on her knees next to him. She placed her hands on his chest, light springing up around her. "_Dicleary_." She held the magic over him for a minute before she released it. Standing up, she kicked him in the ribs, careful to avoid his armour. "Idiot. He better thank me for spending my precious time learning that damn spell from Amelia. He knows how much I hate learning White Magic."

"Huh?" Inspecting Gourry, it looked like he was already starting to regain colour. "Wow, you got rid of the poison?"

Lina nodded smugly, a crooked grin on her face. "Yeah. Dicleary removes all poisons and toxins. Not all that hard for a beautiful, genius sorceress like m-"

"Beautifully bitty bre-"

"_Explosion Array!_" a fountain of dust and dirt shot into the air, Lina not even bothering to turn to look as she blasted the would-be king. She scowled at Macao, who was obviously amused.

Before this could continue, the stamping of feet became noticeable. To the side, Grob and Borg cowered as a small army of trolls gathered and marched towards them, too frightened or stupid to say anything.

"Damn." Macao swore, rune flashing up. "Looks like we still have to-"

"_Mega Brand!_" Lina pointed at the oncoming horde, a ring of light appearing and lifting rubble and loose dirt in the air for a moment before the ground exploded in a huge, perfect circle.

"-do nothing." Macao finished lamely, starring at the blasted trolls. "I guess we better take him to the town and get our reward, if that's all the trolls."

Lina cackled. "We can't be sure. Here, you take Jellyfish brains. _Levitation. _I'm going to mop up." Laughing darkly, Lina lifted into the air.

As Macao set off toward the village, his companion and prisoner both suspended by his magic and followed by a pair of befuddled trolls with no better ideas about what to do and afraid to stay near 'da scary little red lady', the sound of explosions renewed, now accompanied by downright villainous laughter.

"At least she hasn't blown any towns up" Macao muttered to himself. Unspoken, the word 'yet' added itself to that statement. "Master doesn't know what he's let into the guild." A grin suddenly appeared and he laughed. "But I can't wait to see his expression when he finds out."

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

'_Why does this world hate me?_' Zelgadis thought miserably. He jumped to avoid the jaws of the crocodile. Landing on the next stepping stone, he ducked the burst of electricity that shot from another's maw. '_Crocodiles which shoot _lightning_? Come on! Normal crocodiles don't even live in this climate! We're underground!'_

"_Freeze Arrow!_" he snapped the spell off at another of the small crocodiles that burst from the fast flowing river, jaw wide. Its expression became as shocked as a crocodile's could as it was left in a block of ice that tumbled back into the river. "Amelia, come on!"

Behind the chimera the princess did as he did, jumping from the flat stepping stones to the next while dodging the baby crocodiles. From the shore they were heading to, Okura cheered them on. He had to bite back a curse at her. It was, after all, her fault for waking up the damn lizards after running ahead of them. They couldn't even fly, since the older crocodiles further along seemed happy to let them be target practice for the younger spawn but when they got too high would launch massive bolts of lightning at them.

A particularly large youngster erupted behind Amelia as she landed. "Amelia, down! _Sea Blast!_" the river beneath the attacking lightning crocodile surged into an upwards torrent of water, blasting the suddenly distressed animal into the air.

"Thanks, Mr. Zelgadis." Amelia called to him as they resumed their passage over the dangerous river.

"Yeah! Go Zel!" came from the shore, followed by an "Eeeeek!" as one of the baby crocodiles took offense at her cheering and tried to shock her. "Oh, you nasty little crocodile!" Okura wagged a reprimanding finger at it, to which it responded with another entirely sensible shock. Luckily, the little ones could only manage short bursts that only reached a few feet and the shocks themselves were only enough to jolt the average person or stop them moving for a moment.

Of course, if they were shocked while trying to jump between the stones and fell in the river, the young animals had more than enough strength to rip them apart.

"This is getting annoying." He hissed. He called back to Amelia. "Keep them off me for a moment." He stopped on his current stepping stones, chanting under his breath. "_Ye who crosses between sky and earth…_"

Unsure why, but trusting her companion, Amelia was hard pressed to keep from being zapped herself and to protect him. "_Freeze Arrow!_" the spell encased a crocodile, a second hitting the block of ice before it could move.

"_Gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power!_" Zelgadis raised his hands, a thick mist gathering in them. Trailing cloud, he slammed it into the water. "_Demona Crystal!_"

The mist shot across the river in all direction, blanketing the surface. The cloud hung just beneath the level of the stepping stones, floating still for a moment.

Okura shouted at them, confused. "Hey Zel, you can't see the river n-"

_Tcrk!_

The river shone as the mist suddenly seemed to compress, transforming the surface of the river into a thick layer of ice. "Let's continue." Zelgadis shouted back to Amelia, who nodded. She was impressed as always with Zelgadis' magical ability. Casting Demona Crystal over such a wide area, while keeping it low enough to prevent it from covering the stepping stones took precise control. Usually the spell was simply used to freeze a target or column. The ice extended a few meters on either side of them, and reached from Amelia to the shore Okura stood on.

They reached the shore of the underground river in short order; listening to the young crocodiles beat their heads against the ice. It might have been his imagination, but Zelgadis had the distinct impression the adult crocodiles, lazing around further up the river, were finding this highly amusing.

"Next time" he said to Okura as they continued from the small cavern hosting this part of the river "don't start shouting about all 'the cute little crocodiles' you saw when you ran across the river at the top of your voice." His voice was dull and practically monotone. He had truly given up any hope of actually stopping her from doing stupid things since the fifth time she eagerly ran into a new tunnel only to come sprinting out followed by a horde of miscellaneous creatures.

"I'll try." She promised with a vapid smile as every other time.

Amelia gave Zelgadis a concerned look, but he waved her. '_It's just until we get to the surface. Then we can leave her in a town and start looking for Lina and Gourry. Shouldn't be too hard; just have to follow the craters.'_ He consoled himself.

They walked on for a few more hours, the only excitement being the pack of strange snail-like monsters that appeared to draw in prey with convincingly boulder-like shells before wrapping them in tentacles. Zelgadis wasn't sure if having to pry Amelia from their grasp or the fact they seemed to think he was just a rock after a tentacle dragged itself across his face was the worst thing about it. He had been sorely tempted to let them have Okura, but knowing the earful he would get from Amelia if he did so had him cutting the delivery girl free as well. At least, he remembered with a smile, she had spent the next couple of hours starring ahead mindlessly, occasionally shivering and muttering something about a dirty magazine of Otmo's.

Sadly, for Zelgadis at least, Amelia's polite inquires soon yielded results and Okura was going on and on and _on_ about her life. Her uncle, referred to solely as 'Uncle', featured prominently as did the other employee at their restaurant, a man called Otmo. Okura constantly called him a spoilsport and meanie. Zelgadis took this to mean he was sensible and probably quite smart.

Sitting down at when Zelgadis finally agreed to stop for dinner after two hours of begging on Okura's part and nearly half a minute on Amelia's, they began to eat the chicken and beef noodles Okura found herself summoning this time.

"So" Okura asked carefully when they were nearly done. He had also given up on getting her to use his full name. "Why are you all so blue?"

"Mr. Zelgadis has just been a bit overwhelmed recently." The princess supplied.

Zelgadis sighed. "I think she meant, why is my _skin_ blue, Amelia."

She went red. "Oopsie," Amelia laughed nervously in an attempt to get rid of the embarrassment, scratching her head.

Turning to the eager delivery girl, Zelgadis finally said "A man I admired betrayed me and turned me into this. I'm looking for a cure. Now, we should get moving." He abruptly stood and began to walk away, suddenly thrown back into his memories of Rezo. Okura met Amelia's gaze, confused and oddly depressed. The princess smiled awkwardly and shrugged helplessly. "Are you two coming?" he called impatience thick in his voice.

"C-coming" Amelia replied. She and Okura ran to catch up, but Zelgadis stayed at the front. Blessed silence accompanied them this time, much to Zelgadis' relief.

'_I'm in another world and he still haunts my mind._' Zelgadis let out a barely audible sigh. '_It must be because of Taforashia. It wasn't all that long ago. That bastard won again.'_ To say Zelgadis was still sore about not only the fact Rezo had changed him without having a way to fix it but that Rezo got what he wanted – to see the world before he died – essentially scot free while leaving them to clean up after him would be quite the understatement.

Zelgadis felt something in the back of his brain, the inkling of an idea. His brows furrowed as he worked furiously to work it out. He didn't even notice Okura start talking again, rattling on inanely.

'_Another world…another world… another world!'_ his eyes widened. Amelia nearly ran into the chimera when he came to a full stop. She was just about to ask him what was wrong when he started laughing. It had an eerie resemblance to Lina's laughter, at least when she was laughing at a defeated opponent. A triumphant, gloating laughter.

He swung back to face them, a wide, mad grin on his face and a look of triumphant in his eyes. "We're in another world, Amelia! Another world!"

"Err…" she pressed her forefingers together meekly and diverted her gaze. "Y-yes, Mr. Zelgadis. Uh, didn't you know this bef-"

"NO!" he shouted, cutting her off. He didn't seem to notice Amelia's shocked expression. "You don't get it! We're in another world! A world with an all new kind of magic. Whole libraries, cities, nations, CONITNENTS of untapped knowledge!" He laughed again, swinging his gaze to Okura. She shrunk from the intense look in his eyes. "Tell me, Okura, tell me everything you know! Everything you've ever heard about magic that changes a person's form."

Understanding came to Amelia's eyes as she finally realized. Even as she smiled at Zelgadis, exclaiming that she understood, a small part of her mind went a different way. It was part of her that everyone had, the one which thought the thoughts you always kept to yourself and told yourself were wrong to think, since you knew better. '_He'll never notice now, not when all he sees is his search for a cure.'_

The thoughts running through the mind of the chimera in question were on a very different matter. '_You haven't won, Rezo! Not yet! I'll find a cure; I'll find a way to undo your work. You won't haunt me anymore. I'll win, at last!'_

They continued into the darkness beneath the world, one with a mind that kept thinking thoughts it was told it shouldn't, another gloating at the dead, and the last confused but happy that she was able to make her grouchy companion happier now.

* _**SlayersXFairyTail **_*

Aaaaaaand…. done!

Chapter 6 for you, all ready to go! Mostly Lina/Gourry/Macao, with only a little bit of Zel/Amelia/Okura. But never fear, for they shall get more focus next chapter! This do I swear in the name of..uh…ok, I can't swear on god, not believing in him and all that, so….I swear…on Cayden Cailean, Pathfinder's God of freedom, ale, win and bravey, the Drunken Hero, the man who became a god when he passed the Test of the Starstone on a drunken dare.

Well, anyway, any and all feedback is welcome. Tata all!


	7. Chapter 7

IF YOU WANT TO GET TO THE ACTUAL STORY AND NOT ANY INFORMATION: skip the next part, possibly by using the feature on your browser to find words to find *. Otherwise, well, thanks for bothering to read the below information of varying levels of relevance.

Right, well sorry for the delay in this chapter. The long delay. I got a new job recently, and going from having bugger all to do every day to working is a bit of a shift so it took me a while to be both A) bothered to write B) inspired / spurred by random creative thoughts to add more to this and C) I could not think of a C but I'm sure there is one I simply don't remember right now.

Note On Writing: At some later points in this the general manner veers towards a more whimsical way I lapse into when in a certain mood or writing at 4am in a state which leaves me entirely unsure what I wrote. The fact I can frequently find myself in such states while not drinking, due to the fact I dislike the taste of alcohol, and don't do drugs because I just don't see the need or feel bothered to (so its more an apathy and lack of motivation or interest) might not say wonderful things about me...

But then again, why should I care what says what about me in whatever fashion it does? If I feel bothered by it, a simple application of my incredible mind powers, which no I can't display but you'll have to take my word because I'd ever never lie about it especially not over the _internet _of all things what do you think I am some kind of barbarian who paints his skin with woad and goes roaring off to fight bears atop mountains carved from the soul of the god of runny cheese (and thus create a _very _runny mountain), I...forgot what I stared this sentence intending to finish...ah well, I'd remember it is important. Or I won't.

Anyway, at least take solace in the fact InuOtaku911 and I have continued to talk while I failed to write, and thus I have had many an idea to discuss and develop into a number of future stories if I ever get around to writing them. Fairy Tail crossover with Legend of Zelda (minor note: A DAMNED PAL FORMAT COPY OF TWILIGHT PRINCESS FOR THE GAMECUBE STILL COSTS $100! ARGH! IF I FIND OUT WHO LOST MY COPY AND IT WASN'T ME I'M GOING TO SELL THEIR ORGANS...WITHOUT GIVING THEM A FINDERS FEE!), a few FT stories, some humorous and some serious (le gasp!), a copy original story ideas I never bothered to write down, such as ideas for web-comics I'd like to write if I actually found someone reliable who wanted to draw them since I suck deadly donkeys balls at it, various WMGs (Wild Mass Guess, from TV Tropes. Go have a look if you don't know the site.)

– DISCLAIMER: Fraggranark takes no responsibility if you end up spending the rest of the day on TV Tropes, starting on WMG and ending up on the "The Clan" or "A Child Shall Lead Them" pages without being entirely sure how you got there. Seriously, Inu will back me up there. –

Continuing: various WMGs of Slayers in particular which might end up rolled into this fic. I've also had some great ideas for stories that are crossovers of various things and DnD, specifically Paizo's Pathfinder (sometimes called "3.75" to show it role as the 'spiritual successor' to Dungeons & Dragons 3.5) which I honestly prefer over 4th Ed. Not least because I'm in absolute love with Psionics, as will eventually become obvious in this fic. More exactly, crossovers using not settings but various characters I or my mates who I play with have used. I do tend to favour spell casters, and unless I'm going for a very particular build I tend to create characters that are normally of races that most don't expect to be spell-casters. While Pathfinder did lessen the image of Half-Orcs being all muscle and stupid, favouring their orc parentage, I take it further by using the Psionics Unleashed rules to play wizard/psion who goes onto the Prestige Class Cerebramancer, which are just so fucking epic and...

OK, I kind of got distracted there. My mistake. But hey, if any readers feel like discussing DnD or any other tabletop games I play (I think I have a list on my profile, check it out), send me a private message or mention it in a review.

Oh yes, that's the last thing before we get to the actual, y'know, story:

Enjoy the story, and if you do please review so I can feel all warm and special and feel the urge to get the next chapter done faster.

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Welcome back! How did you go?" Mirajane called out as Macao and his two companions entered. Several other mages echoed her sentiment, Natsu and Gray among them. Theirs were a bit vague, as both were in the middle of attempting to send the other crashing into the closest wall or floor.

Makarov jumped down from the second floor, flashing them a 'v' victory sign. "I heard some good things, but let's hear it from you first." He suggested cheerfully, waving them to sit on the table currently occupied by Lucy, Levy and Wendy. Technically it was also hosting Natsu and Gray, but they were standing on it.

"Well" Macao said general without apparent ill-intent. "Lina saved a train, I only nearly died from a stab through the chest, she nearly suffocated in a vault, Gourry met suspicious people and Lina we-"

Lina's hands clapped over his mouth. "I fought a mind reader." Was all she was willing to expand on Macao's interrupted statement.

"D-died?" Lucy asked worriedly. "Are you ok?" Wendy had already run over to check him.

"Nah, all good. Thanks anyway." He grinned down at Wendy and indicated Lina. "She can heal some herself."

"Pfft, White Magic." Lina shrugged. "That's Amelia's job."

"Doesn't Zelgadis know White Magic as well?" Gourry pointed out.

She just rolled her eyes. "Of course he does, he knows a little bit of just about everything! That's what you get for searching for a cure all the time instead of focusing on _real _magic."

"Real, meaning 'devastating'?" Macao asked.

Makarov coughed to get their attention. "Well, I'm happy to hear that. Almost as happy to receive this!" he drew out a letter. Waving with an ecstatic expression on his face, the old man went on "This is from the rail company, praising Lina for _not _blowing up the train!"

She laughed nervously. "Yeah, well, I thought it would just get worse if my first thing here was blowing up the train before we even arrived." She cast a dark look at something none of them could see. "I get accused of stuff like that enough as it is. At least I got to blow up that fort." She added with a smirk."

"...a fort?" Makarov's face had frozen, hope warring with despair in his eyes. "You don't mean whole...?"

Macao nodded, remembering the blast. "I saw it. She turned the troll fort and the hill it was on into a crater."

"...a crater..." Makarov echoed.

"But don't worry." Lina smiled innocently. "I would _never_ cast Dragon Slave in a town or a city...probably." she whispered the last part to herself.

"Oh." Lucy snapped her fingers. "I just remembered. Did you get the chance to try 8Island?"

Lina and Gourry's expressions suddenly became masks of pleasure and ecstasy. "It was great!" Lina nearly drooled.

"Mhmm." The swordsman seemed lost in memories, staring into the distance as visions of food filled his mind.

"They blew half the reward money on food." Macao said, shaking his head.

"H-how much did you get paid?" Lucy asked, a sweat drop forming.

"100,000 Jewels."

There was a silence as the guild stared at Lina and Gourry. "T-they ate 50,000 Jewels worth of food?"

"How could a person spend 25,000 Jewels on food?" Jet asked Droy a table away.

Macao shook his head again. "No, I mean they ate 50,000 Jewels _each_."

The silence this time was deafening, and Lina finally noticed. "What's wrong you lot?" her expression became a combination of thoughtful and irate. "What was it, I was gonna asked something...That's it!" her fist smacked the table. Lina pointed at Makarov. "Oi, old man, you know about anyone with an eye tattoo on their forehead with a bounty? A dark guild mage or something?"

Ignoring the near demanding tone, Makarov thought for a moment. "Eye tattoo on forehead? Which one was this?"

"The mind reader." She clarified.

Lina was cut off by the sound of a plate crashing to the floor behind them. Since there weren't any shouts that indicated a fight going on, this was a bit surprising. Turning Lina looked into the terrified face of Warren Rocko. He was staring at her, mouth open. Mashed potatoes, spotted with a number of other vegetables, covered his shoes. "Uh, something wrong?" she asked, confused.

Gulping, he asked her in a shaken voice "A-an eye tattooed on his f-forehead? Is that what you saw?"

"Er, yeah." Lina replied. "Do you know it?"

"Was it purple, or blue?" he asked as if she hadn't said anything beyond confirming the eye tattoo.

"Uh, purplish with a bit of blue, I think. Do you know it?" she was more impatient this time.

He held up his hands in a calming gesture, which did not convey much since he was shaking. "J-just wait here, I'll b-be right back." With that, he sprinted from the hall. Staring after him, the rest of the guild watched the doors fall shut slowly.

Turning back to the others, Lina asked "What's his problem?"

They shrugged, but worry was etched on Makarov's face. "I'm not sure, but I've never seen Warren like that. It must be something bad. He does use Telepathy, so he might have heard of him."

'_Right, his name is Warren and he uses Telepathy. Argh, there's so many of them to remember.'_ "Well, I hope he knows something." Was all she said.

Not ten minutes later, Warren reappeared. Stopping with some effort at their table, he slammed a book down and began to flip through it. He ignored any questions, even from Levy, who had materialised the moment a book had appeared. At last he stopped, spinning the book to face Lina. "There, was it like that?" his voice and expression conveyed the message that he _really_ hoped it wasn't.

Lina inspected the picture in the worn, old book. "Yep, looks pretty much identical." He stared at her for a moment longer. "What?"

He sat down, heavily. "Oh..." his face was blank.

"Warren, are you alright?" Lucy asked with concern. It was really getting strange. "Is something wrong?"

He finally answered. "Yes, something is wrong. Something is very, very, _very wrong!_" his voice cracked, and his head dropped into his hands.

"What's wrong?" this came from Makarov. "Warren, are you ok?"

The Telepath shook his head "No, not at all. If that tattoo Lina saw is right, she and Macao were lucky to escape sane." They all looked at him, disbelieving. "It's true. He used Telepathy, didn't he?"

"Yeah..." Lina admitted.

Warren nodded sadly. "Then you were _very _lucky. He was a War Mind."

"War Mind?" Macao asked.

Picking up the book, Warren took a deep breath. "It's a...story, I suppose, but it's still a very real part of history. You see, when wars were more common on the continent, there was a group of Telepaths who felt that their magic wasn't doing enough. They could confound enemies and communicate between allies. But they wanted to do more. So, after working for a long time, they created a new form of Telepathy; War Telepathy. It was...monstrous." he shuddered. "They could drive a man mad in seconds. They tore minds apart, consuming their knowledge and leaving drooling, mindless husks." Here Warren paused to shudder, the idea of doing such a thing obviously sickening to him, before continuing. "But, there was a side effect. Soon they became addicted to what they called the 'essence of thought', and _needed _to consume the minds of others to survive. Some lived purely on minds instead of food and drink, using their power to supply their body with the minimal sustenance require. They let their bodies waste away to strengthen their power. It wasn't long before everyone feared the War Minds, and the tattoos originally created to aid them in focusing in combat became badges of pride and power. Another name for them was the Third-Eye Demons. Eventually, the War Minds were defeated and slain, undone by the mages who used the progenitor to my magic, Telepathy based on touching minds but not attacking. They were able to shield their allies from the magic of the War Minds, leaving them defenceless. They were all hunted down."

Sitting back, it was a minute before Lina spoke, the first to break the silence. "Well, I guess they missed one."

Makarov opened his mouth to reply when the door burst open.

"GREETINGS, IS THIS THE MAGIC GUILD 'FAIRY TAIL'?" the massive man in the door asked at a bellow. He filled the door, a mass of muscle clad in a plain button up shirt and trousers. So, just an ordinary civilan. Except for his big, round beard, great height, incredibly broadness of shoulders and, of course, the voice of a giant. "I HAVE COME TO MAKE A REQUEST!"

There was a silence as the mages attempted to get their ears in working order. The giant of a man advanced into the building.

"Oi oi, boss, you're being too loud." A second voice said a newcomer squeezed through the entrance. He was of a more normal height, but considering his chest was only covered by symmetrical geometric multi-coloured tattoos. Luckily, he did wear trousers that ended in sandals. A thick belt covered in pouches and containers wrapped around his waist. His brown hair was shaved on the sides, but what could be a particularly depressed mohawk drooped down on both sides and reached past his shoulder-blades. He waved at them weakly. "Sorry about this, the boss doesn't have volume control when he gets excited."

"OF COURSE I D- I mean, of course I do!" the 'boss' declared. He looked ready to break into tears. "How could say SUCH A THING, OTMO?"

"Oi oi." Otmo dug his little finger into his ear. "You're hurting my ears, boss." The sanest of the pair put down the odd, flat, square package he had thrown over his shoulder. As it touched the ground, he gently let the cord in his hand run out.

Makarov finally got with the program, leaping from the table and walking up to them. "Yes, this is Fairy Tail. I am Master Makarov."

"I AM- I am Belarus. This is my assisTANT, OTMO!" the man randomly increased the volume of his voice as he talked.

"Yo." Otmo waved again.

Taking the oddity in its stride, Makarov got straight to the issue. "You said you came here to put up a request? You could have sent a letter, or used a communication lacrima, you know." He advised. "What might we do for you?"

Belarus nodded. "THANK- Thank you, Master Makarov. We have COME HERE- come here to make a request. My BELOVED NEICE- Niece was stolen AWAY FROM ME!" here he paused to let out sudden, great, sobs. Otmo weakly patted his employer's mid-side, level with his own shoulders, trying not to look anyone in the eye.

"She got taken by a cult or something." Otmo explained when it became obvious that Belarus was not going to let up anytime soon. He rummaged in his many-fold pouches before pulling out a wrinkled piece of paper. "This is from her; she used her Requip to get it to us. Basically, she got rescued but they're underground and can't find their way back up. The boss here wants to hire anyone you've got who can find them and get them out."

Makarov nodded solemnly. "Do you have any idea where they are?" When he received a helpless shrug, Makarov tapped his chin before he scanned the attending mages. "Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy! You five-"

"He counted me!" Happy cried, ecstatic.

"-I want you to do this."

"Uh..." Lucy hesitated for a moment as Natsu whooped in excitement. "Is ...underground...with collapsible tunnels..._really_ the best place for them to be?" she pointed not-so-indiscreetly at the rest of her team.

Lina snorted and tried not to laugh. Oh, she had heard about Fairy Tail's reputation, Team Natsu in particular. Hearing about 'Apocalypse Lucy' had been absolutely hilarious, and the sorceress was still trying to decide if the blonde was really good at hiding her strength or if the rumour-mill in Fiore was just that absurd.

"Lucy, what are you saying!" the fire-breather shouted in distress. "We'll do great! Old man, don't listen to Lucy! She's...she's gone crazy!"

"Aye!" Happy and Natsu leapt onto Lucy's table, pointing accusingly at her.

The Celestial mage glared at them. "_I'm_ crazy? Look who's talking!"

"Lucy..." Erza began with a serious expression. "Natsu is right."

"WHAT?"

Erza did not appear to hear. She shook her head disapprovingly. "Clearly you must not be in your right mind. Master has chosen us for this, so we are obviously the best suited for the task." Behind her came her wagon of luggage. Lucy waved a hand at it frantically.

"When did you get that?" Lucy sighed and pressed her face against the table, groaning. "I give up."

"Seriously Lucy, we'll do fine." Gray commented, walking behind her with a cocky grin.

Lina leaned past Lucy and eyed him curiously for a moment. "Hey, buddy, is there a reason you're in your underwear?"

The Ice mage looked at her in confusion. He started to glance down. "What do you me- WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" Gray dashed around, searching for his clothes. Unnoticed, Juvia stuffed a heap of fabric under a table.

Watching the madness as a pink-haired fire-breather and a flying, talking, blue cat continued to harass and accuse the blonde of being crazy, while another guy ran around nearly nude, Otmo looked to Makarov. The guild master didn't seem to notice. '_They're even weirder than the stories._'

"Are there any further details you can give us?" he inquired. "Is her rescuer with her? Do you know where an entrance to the area they're in is?"

Belarus finally seemed to calm. "THANK YOU, GOOD MASTER!" Makarov, Otmo and everyone within fifty feet tried to clear their ears before the next verbal assault. "Is 400,000 Jewels sufficient?" he asked in a somewhat quieter voice.

"It should be fine." Makarov assured him.

"VERY- Very well. I believe my DARLING NEICE- niece is still with her VALIANT RESCUERS- rescuers. Mages, she says in her note." The huge man explained.

Otmo took over quickly, for the sake of Makarov's eardrums. He was used to it himself. "We can't find a map, but I think they're in the Dolimnor Tunnels." He said gravely.

"What're they?" Lina asked, curious as Makarov's eyes narrowed.

"A dangerous place; they lead deep underground, and are filled with deadly magical creatures." He glanced at the assembling team before looking back at the duo in front of him. "How do you know that?"

The shorter of the pair lifted the piece of paper. "This. She's been sending notes back. She Requips things from a special cabinet, so we've been sending them food. The Dolimnor Tunnels are the only place I can think of that have Lightning Crocodiles, Deep Earth Wyverns, and all these other weird creatures." A strange grin came onto Otmo's face and he giggled a faint reddening on his cheeks.

The Guild Master nodded and turned to his mages. "You'd best be fast. There's a man I've heard of near there, who tried to map it once. If you leave today, you can get there soon." The five of them nodded, seeing how serious it was. Natsu being Natsu, he was still grinning madly, now eager to face the 'weird creatures' in the Dolimnor Tunnels.

"Oi oi, no need to rush." Otmo grinned at them. He pointed a thump at himself. "I can get you to Tendis, where we live. It's a lot closer." At their questioning gaze, he (im)modestly explained. "I'm a mage too. Teleportation Magic, as it happens. Quite brilliant, I gotta say." Otmo added with a cocky grin.

"Then why didn't you teleport to them and get them, Mr 'quite brilliant'?" Lucy questioned.

"Oi oi, I can't port places I don't know or can't see. I doubt I could fight off the monsters long enough to find them either. I ain't exactly the best fighter out there." He tapped the square, clothe covered package he had been carrying. "This has got my rune on it, so I can teleport wherever it is. That's how we feed them on the journey here. The other end is back at the restaurant. Oh, yeah, the boss runs a restaurant. So no rush."

Makarov motioned Erza over. "The rest of you get ready. Erza, I'll write down the map-maker and where to find him." Turning to retrieve paper to write on, he paused. "My apologies." He looked back at Belarus and Otmo. "What is your neice's name?"

"OKURAAAHAHAA!" Belarus began to cry again.

Trying to comfort his boss, Otmo explained. "Okur- stop cryin' – Okura. Her rescuers were..." he sorted through a number of pieces of paper. Meanwhile, Mirajane deposited a drink for each of them in front of Lina and Gourry. Nice, _hot_, hot chocolate had been Lina's request. Otmo found what he was looking for. "Here it is. Err, is says..." studying it intently for a moment, he managed. "Omelia and Zeldagis?"

"HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!" Gourry screamed as Lina spat a mouthful of hot chocolate at him. She sat up and looked at Otmo intently.

"Did you mean 'Amelia' and 'Zelgadis'?" she asked quickly.

Otmo referred the paper again. He snapped his fingers and gave her an impression look. "Oh, I see. Yeah, that's them. How'd you know?"

The sorceress pinched the bridge of her nose wearily. "Don't worry. Gourry stop whining. Kid, don't spoil him." That was sent to Wendy, who was trying to calm Gourry down so she could make sure he was alright. Lina looked at Erza and her team, sighing with reluctance. "We're coming with you." She said firmly.

"Oh?" Erza raised an eyebrow imperiously. "Why should we agree to let you come?"

Lina snorted and lifted a hand with a trio of fingers up. "Three reasons. One; those are the names of our friends we were with before we got sent here." She dropped one finger. "Two: they might not trust you. Well, Zel definitely won't and Amelia will probably trust you the moment she thinks you're doing it for 'justice', so I suppose it evens out." Lina lowered the second finger. "Three:" she grinned darkly. "I'll head there on my own anyway, and since I won't know the map guy I'll have to settle for finding the general location of the tunnels and" she almost seemed to grow fangs and her eyes glittered with malevolent glee, "blow holes in the ground until I find it."

There was moment as the whole team did the equations, taking the landscape devastating spell Lina had already employed, adding 'underground tunnels' and worked out the result. Lucy paled. There seemed to be an internal shift of gears in Erza's brain. Stubborn and prideful she might be, but not stupid. The look in Lina's eyes said yes, she would do it.

"Hm. Very well. Lina, Gourry, you're coming with us. Hop to it!" Erza commanded. The almost universal thought '_Can't admit she lost.' _circulated the room almost subconsciously untilthe majority of the room's occupants realised they did not want Erza knowing they were thinking that.

"Oi, don't ord-" Lina made to leap up and growl, but she was cut off when Natsu ran past her, on fire and whooping loudly.

"Please, don't." Lucy begged quietly. "We need to find them fast, don't we? You two need to work together."

The two redheads glared at each other for a moment, then looked away and let out a simultaneous 'tch'.

Gourry smiled cheerfully after thanking Wendy. "I'm glad that went well."

Lucy was in the middle of opening her mouth to say that 'No, it had not gone well idiot.' When someone outside screamed.

"Trolls!" the guild was filled with the sound of chairs scraping as everyone stood up, alarmed. Lina pressed a hand against her face in despair.

Two more loud voices joined the screams.

"Troll? Me not see any! Dey run away a'fore Grob see dem?" The first asked in a confused bellow. It was not a hostile level of volume, instead giving the impression that the person responsible merely lacked knowledge of decidedly complicated things like 'volume control' or 'inside voices'.

"Dun be silly Grob, dey obviously hi'din'!" A second tangled web of grammar from a new source befouled the air with its amazing lack of correction.

The first voice praised, "Youse is smart Borg!"

"O' course, mumma said Borg was gunna be da troll dat's gonna wear da smart-pants!"

The first of the voices contrived to make confusion audible without actually speaking. Finally, it said "...Borg?"

"Ya?"

"If...if youse gonna be da troll dat's gonna wear da smart-pants, don't dat mean youse a troll?" it asked hesistantly.

There was a silence. "Well...yerr, s'ppose so..."

"So, don't dat mean dat maybe da humie said dere was trolls cause dey saw Borg?"

The second voice considered. "Well...da ting is...dat...dat da humie said 'trolleses'!" the voice crowed in triumph. "Dat means dere be more den one troll! If dey said it cause'a me, den dey woulda said 'troll-l-l'."

"Ohh, youse really is da smart-pants troll!"

"Dat's right! An' me gonna find dem naughty trolls hidin' round here so da humies don't get all a'fraid."

"But where dey hidin'? Trolls is big from what Grob remembers!"

Beat.

"Dey must be inv- invib- invisim- invisimbel! Dat's da bunny!" The sheer stubborn belief in those words made it clear that no amount of logic or reasoning would convince the second speaker otherwise.

"You nasty trolls, hi'din' from us! Borg gonna smack you inna head when he find yous! An' mes gonna hit ya 's well!" The first of voice's called out.

"Oh, right!" Lina laughed nervously, drawing the guild's attention from the inane conversation that was probably becoming lethal to brain-cells. "I forgot to mention, we kind of brought back some..." she searched for the right word.

"Souvenirs?" Gourry suggested.

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Once the town folk had been calmed, Grob and Borg found themselves peering down at a very, very small human as they sat out behind the guild house.

"Yous is littler den da udder humies?" Grob asked, just in case he was mistaking things.

Borg smacked him, "Course he isn't, wes jus' not seein' all of 'im. Like a..." he frowned at some distant lingual horizon. "ik..bug? Dat's right! He's like an ik bug. He looks smaller cause dere's more of 'im unnerwater!" Borg informed his compatriot with all the knowingness of a troll who refused to be budged now that he had decided he was right.

"Yous is smart!" Grob praised adoringly.

"Err..." Makarov looked up at them, asking the world why _he _had to deal with things like this. He turned to Lina, Gourry and Macao. "Why are they here?"

It was Gourry who answered. "Well, they were so nice it seemed rude to make them hang around all on their own."

The trolls grinned at him. "We's wanted ta go with Gour'ee. 'E's nicer den da udder trolls. Day don't like us much." Grob admitted sadly. The trolls suddenly began to sniffle as they were overcome with emotion.

"Honestly, we couldn't get rid of the stupid things." Lina scowled at them, sending both scurrying away, fear written on their big faces.

"Da scary lady's 'ere!" Grob cried.

"...is you sure she a girl? Don't look like one ta Borg." The troll normally formerly assumed to be the smarter of the two remarked.

Lina's face darkened. "What was that, you ugly idiot?" she screamed, leaping for them. Gourry had his arms under hers and lifting the sorceress before she got close enough to do any damage. Lina roared and flailed her arms and legs, trying to get free and savage the trolls.

When Makarov turned to Macao, the older mage shrugged apologetically. "I thought we lost them when we got to Hargeon."

"Grob is good tracker!" said troll remarked before he remembered he was meant to be cowering in fear of Lina.

The Guild Master sighed. "I guess we'll have to work out something." Now he smiled in a friendly way at the trolls. For some reason, this made them feel a lot better. "Now, what can you two lads do?" he asked like he was inquiring on the skills of a pair of handymen, not a pair of idiot trolls.

"Me can throw horsies real far." Grob supplied, stretching his arms as far apart as they could go to make sure everyone understood.

Borg smacked him again. "He don't mean da trolly dings we can do, ya juju 'ead. Da ikbug humie wants ta know da humie dings we can do."

The other troll scratched his chin. "Oh, Grob dunno. Smack dings? Humies seem ta like smackin' tings wit' swords. They do it ta Grob and Borg all da time."

"Dere ya go." Borg said to Makarov. "We's can smack dings. Yous want us ta smack tings? We smack 'em real good, just for yous." They beamed at the minute Guild Master.

"Errr...not exactly what I had in mind." Makarov stroked his moustache as he thought. He sighed. "I suppose we'll have to see what work we can find for you two. Maybe you can be some use with building..." he trailed off into thought.

"Right, everyone ready?" Otmo asked.

"Yeah yeah, hurry up." Lina grumbled.

"Good luck." Macao called from the crowd of watching mages.

"Pfft, who needs luck when you're as skilled as me," Lina said with all possible modesty.

He leaned down slightly to the woman next to him. "I meant the others, but I don't think I'll tell her that._"_ Macao whispered to Cana, who cackled and took a chug of her drink.

Otmo lead the group of seven to the place when he had left the square package he had been carrying. Opening it, he revealed a square plate which bore a magical seal. Bright teal, it appeared to be filled with waves and swirls. "Right, stand in a circle around me." He instructed them when he was standing on it. Once they were in position, and Erza had been convinced that the Teleportation Mage would not be able to bring her wagon of luggage, he gave them the next step. "Alright, uh, you" he pointed at Lucy. "Grab my shoulder, and you, pinky-

"Oi!"

"Grab her's. Everyone do the same. Make sure everyone in linked." Otmo grinned. "Unless you fancy being caught up in the magic without an anchor and only end up half there."

"Half there?" Lucy asked despite herself. Something told her she did not want to know, but her mouth apparently decided on its own.

He grinned as he gripped his shoulder. "Yeah, half of you will be here, the other half somewhere towards where we're going. 's not pretty."

The Celestial mage shuddered. "I wish I didn't ask." She moaned.

Otmo waved her worry away. "Don't worry, I'm good at what I do."

"Then why do you work at a restaurant?" Gray asked.

The mage winced. "Please, don't ask. Damn old bat." He muttered the last to himself. He clapped his hands together when everyone was linked. "Right, all ready?"

When he was certain everyone was ready he pressed his knuckles together, taking a deep breath.

"**Greater Teleport.**" The seal beneath feet flared and grew. "**One.**" Another, smaller seal appeared above Lucy. "**Two.**" A third came over Natsu. "**Three.**" He continued to count until everyone within larger seal had their own personal seal above them. "**Teleport!**"

There was the sound of air rushing to fill a sudden void as they vanished in a teal flash.

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"Owowowow! You're gonna break my neck!"

"Argh, move your fat arse, I'm choking!"

"Natsu! Turn your flame off!"

"Oi, Gray! Get the hell away from me!"

"Shit, I can't move anywhere you moro-DAMMIT, HOW DID IT HAPPEN THIS TIME?"

Otmo stood next to the pile of squabbling mages, trying to hide his laughter as they pulled themselves free. The pile was abruptly lifted when Gourry, who had the misfortune to be on the bottom of the pile, stood up, sending them in all directions

"Huh?" he looked down at them. "What happened to you guys?"

Natsu and Gray were up and ramming their skulls into the other in moments.

"What the hell was that, stripper? Undressin' like that while everyone's piled up, perve!"

"Like you're one to talk, flame-brain!"

Erza slowly stood up, sending a glare at them. "I do not like to see friends acting like this." She said meaningfully, a shadow cast over her features highlighting their danger. Lina, pulling herself up grumbling, stopped and stared as Natsu and Gray went from attempting to punch the other in the face to arms-over-shoulders, grinning stupidly at Erza in a terror-filled way.

"A-acting like what?" Gray asked nervously. "W-we're j-just p-playing around." He quivered.

"Aye!"

Watching them, Lucy rolled her eyes. "Happy Number 2 again." She muttered.

"Wow, you're scary." Gourry said without a second thought.

"Yes, I know." Erza said with a satisfied smirk.

Lina snorted. "Pfft, I can make whole gangs of bandits run in fear."

There was a moment of silence as Erza twitched minutely, sending her team cowering against the far wall. "Please, don't." Lucy begged, seeing all too clearly where this was going. "We just started the quest and I won't be able to afford my rent if we have to pay off damages."

Erza and Lina glared at each other for a moment. "Tch" Came from each of them at the same time as they turned their heads. Their faces froze when they realised what they had just done.

Recovering from his amusement, Otmo cleared this throat loudly. "Ladies and gents, we have arrived. Try not to knock anything over, the boss likes his kitchen the way it is." They were indeed in the kitchen, a very large and spacious one.

This was enough to distract Lina from thoughts of arguing with Erza. She licked her lips. "So, if this is a kitchen..." Gourry caught on quickly "Food!" They shouted together, practically drooling.

"Errr, yeah?" Otmo asked, retreating in the face of their expressions. "Um, I can whip up something quick if you want but didn't you eat before we le-"

"Food! Food! Food! Food!" they chanted from the bench, having acquired cutlery and plates in mysterious circumstances. The room shook from six face faults.

"We don't have time to waste!" Erza told them sternly. She received a blank look from Gourry and a raspberry from Lina. "Why you little..."

"Let's just let them eat, Erza." Lucy tried to calm her friend, but made sure not to stand between the redheads just in case. Quietly she added. "If you let them do this, she'll probably be easier to control."

The swordswoman frowned for a second before nodding, "Very well." She turned Otmo, who was grumbling as he pulled on an apron. It was not, in defiance of universal laws of humour, frilly nor was it pink. It was a plain white apron. "Food for six, and Happy."

"What?" he goggled at her; "B-but..."

"She didn't count me! She called me an 'and'!" Happy whined, choosing to leap to Lucy for comfort, who sighed but accepted it. Or she would have, had he not chosen to seek comfort in her chest.

Lucy squealed in distress. "Happy! Get off!" while Natsu cackled in amusement and Gray diverted his gaze. Lina and Gourry found it an amusing diversion from demanding food. "Stop it!"

Mumbling under his breath, Otmo muttered to himself "I dunno. Looks fun to me," He hid a grin as he disappeared into the pantry.

If only he knew what he was getting into...

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"HOLY HORSE STEALING HUNTERS! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?" Otmo screamed in despair, nearly crying as he watched Lina and Gourry finally finished demolishing the last remnants of the pantry.

Lina sat back with a satisfied sigh, patting her stomach. She grinned at the cook. "Thanks for the food."

He fell to his knees, head buried in his hands, sobbing.

"What's wrong with him?" Gourry asked curiously. He frowned. "You know, for some reason this seems familiar..."

His partner coughed surreptitiously, trying to hide the look of vague guilt on her face. She enjoyed her meals, but it was hard not to admit they had an...adverse effect on the food industry. One vengeful bandit had actually followed them using the trail of broken, depressed restaurant owners.

"We should probably be on our way." Lina laughed nervously when Erza shot her a suspicious look. "Come on, let's leave him to mourn." She hurried them towards the door.

"And ~sob~ don't come back! ~sob~!" Otmo cried behind them as they left. The group left via the back entrance, emerging into an alley that led to the main road.

Glancing back, Lucy admitted "I feel a bit guilty. Although..." now she directed her eyes at Lina and Gourry. "I think the blame is more on your shoulders."

Lina threw her arms up defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault if he can't stand losing his cool over something like that." She sniffed. "Ohh, what's smell?"

Next to her, Gourry sniffed the air. "I think...pork...prime-cut...marinated in...something apple-ish." He appraised. He and Lina exchanged grins. "~To the food~!" they cried together.

"..." the rest of the group stared after them.

"How much can two people eat?" Lucy asked, a sweat-drop forming.

Erza sighed. "Well, I guess we had better get after them." She said regretfully. Natsu grinned and dashed off with Happy in hot pursuit, followed by Gray and Erza, Lucy reluctantly trailing them.

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

"We _so _have to come back here again." Lina said to Gourry an hour later as they relaxed in the cart, trundling out of the city. At the front, Erza held the reigns controlling the large, pink furry pig-creatures. She probably had no use for them, having intimidated the animals with a single glare the moment they laid eyes on her. Gourry nodded in agreement as he threw the last of his pork down his throat.

"You two are monsters!" sitting across from them with a sick Dragon Slayer sleeping over her lap, Lucy stared at the pair in amazement.

The sorceress shrugged. "So I've been told." Lina grinned, letting her strange little fang-like tooth display. "I prefer to think that I have a very healthy appetite. No has disagreed with me." Something about the way she said it implied '_and lived.'_

Lucy shivered and Gray, who sat with his back to the front of the cart, wore an expression of disbelief.

"How are you not fat?" he asked with an arched eyebrow and all the subtlety of an angry bull.

"Gray!" Lucy scolded him.

"What? It's a fair question."

"It's rude!"

"Hey, its fine" It was not an uncommon question, so Lina failed to react in a way that would require a new cart as she reassured Lucy. To Gray she answered "Magic. I use up a lot of energy when I cast spells, so I eat so I don't run the risk of running out."

Gray raised an eyebrow at that. "Wow, pretty different than how our magic works."

"Yeah, I heard from Macao. So, only a tenth of the population can use magic?" Lina let out a sigh "Damn, how unfortunate."

"You really think so?" asked Lucy.

Lina nodded emphatically "Oh yeah! How could I even _dream _of living without magic?" she asked rhetorically. "No, I couldn't! That would be like life without Gou- FOOD! Uh, yeah, food!" she was derailed for a moment but forced herself onward, glaring around to make sure no one had caught it. Gray's expression was carefully blank; Lucy was in the middle of a suspicious coughing fit. Erza snorted and Gourry failed to notice completely. "Yeah, so...how long until we get there?" she demanded in an extremely subtle attempt to change the subject.

"A couple hours" Erza told her calmly.

Natsu managed a moan of anguish, even unconscious.

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

Erza pounded on the door of the tall, lone tower sitting out in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. "Open up!" she shouted, attempting to bore a hole through the wooden door through sheer willpower.

"Geez, you don't sound like you're here to rob the place _at all_." Lina muttered, rolling her eyes.

Erza twitched, but resisted the urge to spin around and take issue with the sorceress. Lucy made a subtle shushing gesture at Lina, who made a face but nodded anyway. The three men and the cat had been left to look after the wagon, no one willing to risk Natsu in a tower that was likely full of very flammable, very _valuable _maps. Gourry and Gray, in Lina's words, were just annoying and should be left behind to make sure Natsu did not start a forest fire.

"Yes, comi-oof!" a muffled voiced called, followed by a series of thuds and bangs. The sound of someone scrambling on the other side of the door reached them. After a minute it was pulled opened. A ragged looking man with a large, messy beard stared at them. On the bridge of his nose sat a pair of half-moon glasses that seemed to shift hues every few seconds.

Because when there's a scholar of some subject the heroes need to know about who lives near where they are going, narrative conventions insist that they must wear a monocle or half-moon glasses they peer over. This world paid concession to some such narrative imperatives in the form of Archibald Pentington, master cartographer!

"Hello?" Archibald Pentington, master cartographer, peered at them over his half-moon glasses. He blinked owlishly at them, apparently unaware of the cliché of the action. His voice was thin and wavered uncertainly, the scholar obviously nervous. To be fair, not many people could open their door to find Erza Scarlet looking down at them and not be nervous. The people who could do it without being nervous either A) planned it like that and are the sort of people who sit back with a martini or steeple their hands while saying things like 'Just as planned', in which case they would probably find out they forgot some very important factors in their scheming, B) are blind, or C) are very, very, very stupid. Archibald cleared his throat. "May I help you?"

"Indeed you can." Erza said, nodding in an unconsciously grim fashion. "We're mages on a quest in the area, and we were told you were the man to talk to about –"

"You're here about me tea?" Archibald interrupted her, possibly unwisely, swinging the door with a suddenly cheerful expression. "I'm so glad that someone finally answered my request! Really, it's been so long since the last person tried and it only took me a few months with the sulphuric acid to get the stains out and-" he babbled happily, waving for them to come in.

Lucy gave the scholar an apologetic smile as she walked in after Erza. "Uh, actually we're here about getting a map." Seeing the devastated look on his face, she felt compelled to add "Sorry." As the group entered the tower, they stared in wonder. Every wall was covered in shelves, obviously made to run along the circular inner wall perfectly. What areas of walls was not hidden by book shelves was hidden by maps. On the west wall a set of stairs curved upwards, presumable going to the next floor and higher.

"Wow." Lina breath out, impressed despite herself. The maps were all incredibly detailed, as a seasoned traveller such as herself could tell. As for the books, well, anyone who collected this many was likely to know a lot. Of course, that very much depended on the contents of the books.

The cartographer heaved out a heavy, looking at the carpet forlornly. "Oh, no bother. My fault for getting my hopes up." He gave the impression of a kicked puppy. Archibald's wispy hair, long, thin beard, thin frame and large eyes did not help. In all, he looked like the sort of person who had spent his early children, his late children, early adulthood and at least a proportion of his more recent life being kicked about by various incarnations of bullies, unpleasant people and life in general. He extruded an aura of good-natured helpfulness, even when sighing wistfully, of the sort that you got from the kind of people who automatically help old ladies across the street, assist someone in carrying their groceries and give up their last bit of food because someone else looked a tad hungry. To make matters worse, something about the scholar seemed to shrink his presence and it looked absurdly easy to lose track of him thanks to simply not noticing.

"We can try some tea while we're here if you want." Lina proposed. She would have liked to say it was just her inordinately generous nature coming to the fore, but since at least one person in the room knew her this was likely to not be believed, and so she admitted to herself it was also a good portion of curiosity. Lina knew, after the myriad misadventures throughout her life that things like this always bore incredibly horrible, painful or, worst of all, annoying fruit but she could not help it.

After all, what sort of tea left stains you needed several months of _acid _to remove?

"Lina, we're on a sched..." Erza began, but trailed off as Archibald's posture straightened and he _beamed _at them. The word had never seen a more appropriate smile to describe. You could _feel _the invisible beam of positivity and child-like glee that was being launched from his face. "Well...I suppose we can spare a few minutes." Erza finished weakly.

"Marvellous! Marvellous! Thank you so very much! I'll go start –" he began, only to find Erza's armoured fist on the collar of his old, faded red robe.

"But first, we have important business. We need a map." She told him shortly.

Archibald fiddled with his glasses for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. "What, exactly," he asked eventually "Of?" Really, he should have been able to ask the question a lot faster but the hair of the girl who was eyeing his books with an appraising look (which he knew was simply because it was so very impressive. After all, no one would think about how many the books or their contents would be worth on the market, would they? No, no one would really do that.) had sent his thoughts into a sudden spiral, almost unconsciously bouncing between complex algorithms and formulae at the merest prompting. The fact these were all dedicated to a certain herbal drink should be viewed to take away from them in any way.

"The Dolimnor Tunnels" Lucy volunteered helpfully. The name of the deadly landscape did not seem to affect the man.

Nodding, Archibald walked across the floor to a desk set against the walls, obviously built for ease of use when cataloguing or writing in a book. "I think..." he frowned as read up and down the book shelf nearest the desk. "Oh, silly buggers. It'll be upstairs, where I do my cartography." He informed them as though it were a matter of grave consequence which floor he kept the map on. Going to stairs, he took a few steps before looking back at them. "Oh, I forgot to say; this way please."

Rolling her eyes at the small man's oddity, Lina was the first up after him followed by Erza and finally Lucy. When he reached a door, Archibald turned to them with a hesitant expression. "Err, you..._might _see something odd while you're here. Please, trust me when I say it's nothing to be concerned about but...well, if you feel..." Archibald was obviously struggling for the right word. "If you feel any..._touching_ do not be alarmed."

"Touching?" Lucy asked, peering around suspiciously. Since they were still in the stair well, there was not a lot to peer at with a paranoia induced stare.

"Yes, well...you'll find out, I suppose." Archibald said quietly, giving them another look of worry before proceeding into the next room. They followed, and saw a room much like the last save for the spiral staircase in the centre of the room and a number of paintings on the wall which appeared to be of strange, ghostly beings, each vastly different. One a strange creature that appeared to be a roughly triangle shaped head with two pairs of floating, three, long-fingered hands, the next a knight in armour riff with the symbols of death and, oddly, protection with a trident in each hand. Archibald hurriedly moved towards the stairs at a faster pace.

It went well, at least up until Lina felt a hand on each of her buttocks. She froze, and taking advantage the mysterious invisible hands _squeezed_.

And not in a good way either.

"KYAAAA!"

_Fphoom!_

*___**SlayersXFairyTail**_

I hope you enjoyed that. You know, maybe I should have moved all the stuff above the story down here, but I can't be buggered nor can I think of a huge number of reasons to do it that I can motivate myself with.

Please review, they feed my godly powers like the prayers sent to deities in the DnD Forgotten Realm campaign setting. After all, if you don't want to spend eternity congealing in the "Wall of the Faithless" you aren't allowed to dislike and refuse to worship any of the gods. The gods said so.

Except, and here's the cunning part of my scheme, you don't get all that "Wall of Eternity" stuff if you decide not to review. But since I won't do it to you, I promise, why not review anyway to show me some gratitude.

After all, _no one_ wants me to change that "no" to a "yes"...do they?

Have a nice day, and remember, don't give into threats...

Oops, I meant "Don't give into threats _unless_ they're my threats", of course.


End file.
